Carers

Adult carers: The local authority provides advice and support for adult carers who care for the elderly, children with special needs and adults with physical or learning disabilities. Carers may be entitled to receive additional help and support for their own needs from the local authority.

Advocacy for carers: Provision of advice, counselling and support for those who are caring for adults or children with special needs. Advocacy on behalf of carers may include raising awareness of carers issues and helping to keep them on the agenda of all relevant agencies, setting out key values and principles for services to carers in the form of a local Carers Charter and improving the quality and increasing the availability of information to carers.

Respite care for adults: Carers and the people they are caring for may be entitled to respite care in the form of a temporary place in residential accommodation or provision of an alternative qualified carer to give both the carer and their families a break.

Shared care for adults: Shared Care offers short term care to adults who are unable to live on their own (without a full-time carer) and the people who care for them. The care can vary in length from a few hours up to a maximum of two weeks at a time and is provided by people approved by Social Services to be shared carers.

Young carers - support and advice: The local authority Social Services team offer young carers and their families support information and advice. The service provides recreational respite, advocacy, a befriending service and therapeutic support to young people who have caring responsibilities for a relative with a long-term illness or disability.