Sutton's Joint Carers Strategy has seen significant progress over the past year, with key achievements including the establishment of the Carers Partnership Board (CPB) and advancements across all four of the strategy's priority areas. The Health and Wellbeing Board met on Monday, September 7, 2026, to review the strategy's delivery, noting substantial progress in identifying and recognising carers, assessing their needs, supporting them, and specifically addressing the needs of young carers. The meeting's public reports pack can be found here.
A major accomplishment has been the Council's partnership with the St George's Epsom and St Helier Hospitals (GESH) Carers Charter, enhancing local carer identification and recognition. This collaboration is now being extended to Integrated Community Services and Virtual Wards.
Significant improvements have also been made in assessing carers' needs, with the percentage of completed Carers Assessments rising from 34.9% to 63.8%. This priority is linked to the Adult Social Care (ASC)/Care Quality Commission (CQC) Improvement Plan, which ensures joint work contributes to shared outcomes, including increasing assessment take-up and reducing access inequalities through cultural competence and outreach to local heritage and faith communities. Actions completed over 2025/26 include three rounds of Carers Awareness Training for ASC staff, which received positive feedback for helping staff understand the role of unpaid carers and where further help might be needed. While specific challenges leading to the initial low percentage were not detailed, the ASC/CQC Improvement Plan and Carers Awareness Training have been key in addressing this. Direct Payments take-up has seen a 100% increase, and a dedicated carer's workflow has been integrated into Adult Social Care systems to automatically generate contingency plans. This new workflow uses data collected during the assessment process to develop a carer back-up or contingency plan that can be downloaded or printed, responding to a direct action requested by Sutton's Adult's Safeguarding Board during the strategy review process.
Efforts to support carers have included the formation of a Respite Care Task and Finish group to gather feedback and improve respite options, alongside the funding of several pilot programmes directly supporting carers. These pilots include:
- Wallington Community Wellbeing Charity's Thursday Club: Offers a blended approach to supporting people with dementia and their carers, with community-based dementia-friendly activities and a 'Carers Corner' for peer support, signposting, and advice. Carers have provided positive feedback on accessing information, advice, and wellbeing services.
- Advice Support Knowledge Information (ASKI): Collaborates with local global majority groups, focusing on falls prevention and maintaining independence. It is proving to be a model for testing culturally appropriate health and wellbeing activities and helping socially isolated older adults develop social connections and new support networks for carers.
- Sutton Carers Centre's CARES Project: Testing new ways to address barriers preventing carers (especially lone carers) from accessing respite care and activities. A menu of respite opportunities is being compiled to inform the Respite Care Task and Finish Group and improve information and advice for carers.
Lessons learned and preliminary results from these pilots include positive feedback on accessing information and advice, the benefits of peer support, and the need for culturally appropriate and accessible services. The CARES Project aims to improve the local respite offer and information available to carers.
For young carers, collaborative work has led to co-production activities with Young Carer Ambassadors, a survey of local schools to understand their needs, and the introduction of an online self-referral system. The survey of local schools revealed that 20 schools provide support to young carers, including social and emotional support, fun and leisure activities, and structured group time. Identification methods vary, with many schools lacking a formal process and relying on direct communication or designated staff. Young carers themselves reported that the most important things outside of their caring role are social life, hobbies, sports, and future stability. They expressed a wish for emotional support, social connection, practical help at home, and help with schoolwork. Caring responsibilities negatively impact their schoolwork due to challenges with homework, emotional strain, and lateness. Positive influences included social and respite activities, counselling, support from teachers, and quality time with parents. These findings are being used to build an evidence base for future engagement work, starting with Young Ambassadors and leading to activities in schools for young carers who do not access the Sutton Carers Centre.
Looking ahead, proposed actions for the coming year include strengthening the oversight and delivery of the Young Carers priority, establishing a process to nominate a Carer Co-Chair for the CPB, and focusing the board's workplan on supporting carers. The Carers Partnership Board (CPB) includes representation from each partnership organisation, Sutton's local charitable, community and faith sector (CCFS), and carers themselves representing key cohorts. For the first year, the CEO of the Carers Centre filled the position of Carer Co-chair to ensure carer voices were heard until a formal, open appointment process was established. A proposed action for 2026/2027 is to establish this process for nominating and naming a Carer Co-Chair.
These proposed actions align with national initiatives such as the Unpaid Carers Action Plan and the Wellbeing and Schools Act, aiming to further embed carer support within the community and health systems. Sutton's Joint Carers Strategy aligns with the national Unpaid Carers Action Plan ('Recognise, Refer, Reach') by emphasizing themes such as identifying and recognising carers, sharing data, involving carers in key decisions, improving access to information and support, and supporting carers to lead fulfilling lives outside of their caring role. The strategy also links to the Wellbeing and Schools Act (2026), Healthy Child, and Families First Initiatives, which focus on the recognition, support, education, health, and wellbeing of young carers. The Act establishes statutory requirements for a Young Carer Lead in schools, data collection on young carers, and multidisciplinary Family Help Teams. The strategy's Priority 4: Young Carers, directly addresses these national goals by aiming to raise awareness, improve identification and support, and co-produce future commissioning of services for young carers.
Further details regarding the meeting agenda can be found here.
