The Wandsworth Health and Wellbeing Board has received a progress report on the Carers' Charter, detailing advancements in supporting unpaid carers and young carers across the borough during the 2025/26 period. The report, presented at an informal meeting on Thursday, September 17, 2026, highlighted significant efforts to enhance care and recognition for those with caring responsibilities.
Key achievements include improved support for young carers through several new initiatives. Children's Services completed a Young Carers Scoping Review, the findings of which contributed to the establishment of a multi-agency Young Carers Subgroup aimed at strengthening coordination and support. Furthermore, Enable established the Care Collective, a new co-produced program offering dedicated social and recreational opportunities for young carers aged 12-18 (or up to 25 for those with SEND). The Wandsworth Young Carers Project continued to provide peer support, wellbeing workshops, and one-to-one check-ins for young carers aged 8-17. Children's Services also collaborated with schools to raise awareness of young carers and improve their identification and recording. Additionally, the Wandsworth Carers Centre received a £20,000 grant for a 12-month project (September 2025 to August 2026) specifically for young adult carers (aged 16-25), offering enhanced support through mentoring, financial assistance, mental health referrals, and peer activities.
The Wandsworth Carers Centre also continued its vital work, offering a range of therapies, training, information, and emotional support to all carers. This includes services like Dementia Cafés, welfare benefits advice, grant applications, advocacy, and peer support sessions designed to reduce isolation. Professional awareness sessions are also delivered to health, social care, and voluntary sector teams to improve carer recognition and promote the Centre's services.
Primary care colleagues have also strengthened the identification and recognition of carers within GP practices, leading to an 11.5% increase in carers recorded on GP registers. In total, 827 carers accessed wellbeing support, and over 1,200 peer support attendances were recorded. The report also highlighted the delivery of more than 50 co-produced young carer sessions.
However, challenges persist in consistently evidencing collective impact across the system and engaging organisations in the new pledge-based approach. The primary reasons for the low uptake of the pledge system, launched in June 2026, include organizations needing time to consider their commitments, some not initially realising their eligibility, and a potential lack of understanding of the benefits. The current efforts are also part of existing workloads, with no dedicated resources allocated to oversee the charter.
To address these challenges, a new pledge-based approach has been introduced, expecting organizations to make specific commitments and report on their progress. This approach relies on accountability through transparency and reporting to foster continuous improvement. Strategies to enhance engagement include improving the consistency of information submitted by partners, structuring Board discussions around the four Charter themes, and clarifying expectations through the Carer Partnership Wandsworth Board's Terms of Reference. The Wandsworth Carers Partnership Board meets quarterly to review Charter priorities and actions.
To allow for a more proportionate and sustainable approach to monitoring progress and gathering richer evidence of impact, a move towards a biennial reporting cycle is proposed. While a full report would be presented every two years, an annual one- or two-page summary report of activities could be provided as a 'check-in' within this cycle.
The Board was asked to note the progress made, support efforts to improve participation in future reporting, and encourage wider adoption of the pledge approach to strengthen collective action in support of carers and young carers. Further details on the report can be found in the Public reports pack 17th-Sep-2026 13.00 Health and Wellbeing Board.
