Supporting informal carers in services for the elderly
Short-term care is available for people in informal care, but informal carers only take around half of their statutory leave. Reasons for not taking leave include the carers' reluctance to take leave and distrust of the quality of short-term care.
The goal of the assessment
The main question of the assessment was whether the services provided to informal carers in caring for the elderly are adequate and meet their needs. The assessment examined whether the services offered to informal carers are in line with the objectives, whether the services provided to people in informal care meet their needs, whether the services of informal care support have been developed during the strategy period and whether the customer experience data collected from customers has been utilised in the development of informal care services. The assessment focused on support for informal care of people over 65 and people under 65 with a memory disorder diagnosis.
Conclusions
The assessment found that the support services for the informal care of the elderly are largely adequate and meet the needs. The provision of services for both carers and people in informal care is broadly in line with the targets, but not all available services are utilised fully. One reason why informal carers do not take all their statutory leave is that it is perceived as difficult to find quality temporary care. In addition to this, the City’s application processes are perceived as complex and access to information about services difficult. Health and wellbeing checks are also available for informal carers, but these are not widely used. Support services for informal carers have been developed to be more customer-oriented, and the division has been able to shorten application processing times. Customer experience data have been used to develop support for informal carers to some extent.
Recommendations of the Audit Committee
The assessment department of Hospital, Rehabilitation and Care Services of the Social Services, Health Care and Rescue Services Division must
- increase communication about the informal care support services available and how to apply for them, and refer cared-for persons and informal carers to the services.
- actively refer informal carers to health checks.
- collect feedback on short-term care from informal carers and, where possible, from cared-for persons, and take measures based on the feedback.