Services in Family and Social Services to support the well-being of informal carers

The goal of the assessment

The main focus of the assessment was on whether Family and Social Services had supported informal carers and their well-being in line with the City Strategy. This was assessed by examining the availability of informal carers’ statutory leave and other statutory services. The Social Services and Health Care Division’s Family and Social Services is responsible for providing informal care support services to people under the age of 65.

Conclusions

Family and Social Services has largely ensured the support and well-being of informal carers in line with the City Strategy. However, suitable temporary care placements are not always available for different client groups. These client groups include Swedish-speaking clients, people over 18 with severe disabilities, and clients with neuropsychiatric syndromes. Clients under 65 who receive informal care support are a heterogeneous group, so temporary care requires a wide range of expertise and professionalism.

Informal care families have been dissatisfied with the value of the informal carers’ service voucher, as it is not always sufficient to purchase home services at weekends and in the evenings, which is when families with children particularly need their time off. Organisations have also proposed new alternatives to replace informal carers’ leave with service vouchers for cleaning services, for example. Informal care and disability organisations are urging the city to use lived experience experts to develop services. It is important to communicate to people about the available informal care support services so that clients know about the support and services open to them.