Somerset's Young Carers' Service Consultation

A message from Somerset County Council:

"As part of the County Council’s review of services, the provision of the Young Carers Service across the county is being undertaken. This takes into account future budget constraints, as determined by the current Medium Term Financial Planning process.

The service review includes consultation with service stakeholders on options for the future of the service. I am therefore writing to advise you of the options that have been identified, and about which we would welcome your views.

The Current Service:

Currently the staffing establishment is 2 Team Leader posts, 4 project worker posts: a 37 hour post, 27 hours, 20 hours and 18 hours. There is also a part-time admin post.  The service is not fully staffed currently. The salaries budget is £125K. 

The Young Carers’ Service is currently provided in-house. It is split across the four areas and supported by two team leaders (one east and one west), with four project workers, with a lead CSM and lead Group Manager. The service is supported by fund-raising activities of the Friends volunteer group. In addition there is a number of volunteers support the delivery of regular group activities across the county. There are also links with Early Intervention Pods to identify other support services available for young carers. There is also limited development of work building on school pilots to identify and support young carers within schools across Somerset.

The proposed changes are covered in the following options:

Proposal 1: Option 1

Option one would require a salary budget of approx £60K.

• Assessment – by Early Intervention Pods. Where a child or young person is identified as a young carer, this will include initial referral to Adult Services to review support to person receiving care. They will also refer the young carer to group activities/linked in with a group.
• Review – annual review by Young Carer Worker, to ensure that young person has been extricated from their caring role. Where this is the case, end support via group activities and close case; where this is not the case, to work with Adults Services to address continued caring duties and continue the provision of group support.
• Group support – volunteers will provide the core delivery of group support, which will be co-ordinated by the Young Carers Team Leader.
• Support in schools – Team Leader to work with schools to set up and develop their support to young carers.
• Basing the Young Carers’ Service with a mentoring and advocacy service provider - there is already a core group of volunteers working with young carers but their number can be increased through the recruitment strategies and processes of the advocacy service. The quality of training within such services will further develop the skills of the volunteers. 
• Team Leader – based within the advocacy service will draw upon their expertise in recruiting and supporting volunteers. Their main functions will be to co-ordinate group activities run by sessional workers & volunteers, work with schools on support programmes, and supervise Young Carers Worker.
• Project Worker – based within the advocacy service, will complete the annual reviews for young carers to identify continued need for group support and to follow-up outstanding caring responsibilities with Adult Services.
• Sessional Workers – will be deployed as appropriate to help support group activities.
• Volunteers – will provide the core delivery of group support to young carers.

Proposal 2. Option 2 - As option 1, with staffing levels for young carers of:

Options 2 and 3 would require a salary budget of just over £70K.  

• 1 team leader
• 2 part-time project workers, at 22hrs a week – split east/west, responsible for annual reviews, and for attending groups to support the volunteers in their half of the county.

Proposal 3. Option 3 - As option 1, with staffing levels for young carers of:

• 1 team leader
• 2 part-time project workers, at 22hrs a week – both workers under taking annual reviews, with one worker leading on attending group work to support the volunteers, and one worker leading on working with Adult Services to extricate young carers from their caring responsibilities.

To have your say:

You can complete the form below to have your say or you can email your views to Lucy Nicholls lucy.nicholls@helpandcare.org.uk or telephone 01458 250674.

For further information:

For more information or to give your views, please contact Lucy Nicholls at the Somerset LINk on lucy.nicholls@helpandcare.org.uk or telephone 01458 250674.

If you would like to contact Somerset County Council about this consultation, please contact Jeremy Sellars – jsellars@somerset.gov.uk 01373 468295.

This consultation is open until Friday 3 February.