Care
• Support for carers to care effectively, by providing relevant and timely information, advice and support.
• Increase equality of services and the quality of support for carers, to maintain health and wellbeing.
• Optimise and maintain physical health and wellbeing of carers.
• Deliver continuous and coordinated care to support carers to care effectively across different disciplines and sectors.
• Ensure quality of care and support through robust continuous clinical audit in clinical practice.
• Utilise clinical guidelines and evidence-based practice.
• Support the specific needs of BME groups.
• Appreciate high expectations of informal care in BME families, additional pressures associated with gender roles and socio-economic circumstances.
Compassion
• Empowerment for carers, recognising and utilising the skills and expertise of carers as equal partners in care.
• Listen to carers, support their needs and their caring role.
• Build on what works to support carers and the people they care for, to maintain health outcomes.
• Effective liaison with other health and social care professionals to ensure needs are met with regard to family members i.e. general practice nurses and district nurses providing seamless support.
• Work in partnership with carers to get a better understanding of the care and compassion issues that affect them.
Competence
• Ensure right person, right skills, right time – all of the time.
• Ensure care is provided by experienced and knowledgeable practitioners, with the skills to communicate effectively to patients, carers and their families.
• Improve use of skill mix and specialist roles.
• Harness partnership skills and expertise working within the changing agenda, recognising core values of adult services.
• Increase peer support and inter-agency training between professional groups.
• Improve access to relevant and timely training and expert support networks through clearer signposting and availability of information.
• Acknowledge and endeavour to incorporate cultural beliefs and values about aging and illness.
Communication
• Ensure carers are given appropriate information, training and support so that quality care is maintained when professionals are not present.
• Improve multi-disciplinary communication, teamwork and planning to support early identification, signposting and referral of carers including building strong relationships with carer organisations to provide integrated support.
• Ensure the alignment of communication between health (particularly GPs, general practice nurses and district nurses), social care and partner agencies with third sector and, in some cases, with carers as well.
• Improve the sharing of information to improve seamless support for carers.
• Ensure information is available in relevant community languages and multi-media approaches.
• Recognise language differences and potential impact on care.
Courage
• Advocate for carer needs to enable them to support the patient/client.
• Challenge decisions and support acknowledgements when things are not going well.
• Recognise carers as experts in care and provide support to avoid crisis or risk to carer's health and wellbeing.
• Champion and highlight good practice and also be able to challenge areas of practice requiring development.
• Act as a local champion for carers needs and use negotiation and influencing skills to instigate change.
• Ensure positive and professional role models for patients and carers.
• Recognise limitations of cultural knowledge and competence and seek to help learn from families of formal learning.
• Provide advocacy for translation and dietary needs.
Commitment
• Provide ongoing support to ensure carers’ needs are met.
• Use opportunities to consistently promote carers' needs to wider multi-disciplinary team.
• Improve patient and carer satisfaction.
• Support innovative quality initiatives in practice, and identify areas for development within, the support for carers, recognising and sharing good practice.
• Comment on and enhance current practice and embrace new ways of working.
• Ensure transparency for a better patient and carer experience.
• Support change management and embrace new ways of working to improve support for carers.
• Improve patient and carer satisfaction, paying particular attention to those whose culture, language or social circumstances require additional support.