Who is a Carer?

A Carer is a relative, friend or neighbour who provides essential support to someone unable to do everything for themselves. A Carer can be an adult, young person or a child. Cheshire Social Services are committed to supporting Carers and recognise that “most care in the community takes place through family, friends and neighbours”. In recognising the role and needs of Carers a Carers Charter has been developed and is available from your local Social Services office. The support that Cheshire Social Services offers to Carers stems from the Carers Recognition and Services Act 1995 and the Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000. This page tells Carers how Cheshire Social Services can help them under the terms of these two Acts.

What is the role of a carer?

In order to support those Carers needing most help, Carers’ legislation defines Carers as people who provide or intend to provide a substantial amount of care on a regular basis. In effect this means a Carer who is typically supporting someone on a daily basis or at least for most days of the week. The support provided could cover personal care, practical assistance, help with medical matters or the supervision of someone who is at risk owing to physical frailty or mental health problems.

A Carer may be caring for:

• Older people(including people with dementia);
• Children with disabilities;
• People with physical disabilities;
• People with visual (blindness)or hearing (deafness)impairment;
• People with mental illness(like depression and schizophrenia);
• People with learning disabilities;
• People with HIV/Aids;
• People who misuse substances.

How can Cheshire East Social Services help?

Help and advice can be given in a variety of ways. In most cases help will be provided as the result of an assessment of needs. This may be a joint assessment, where a Carer’s needs and the person for whom they care are considered within one process, or as a completely separate assessment, looking at the Carer’s own needs. A Carer may have their needs assessed even if the person they care for does not have services from Social Services. Indeed the person being cared for may have been assessed for service and have declined them or they may not wish to be involved with Social Services. A Carer can request a separate assessment of his or her own needs at any time.  There may be a charge for some services. The person receiving the service will be responsible for paying these. Some charges are fixed, for example, meals, while others depend on a person’s financial situation. Either way, we will ensure people are informed of any cost before a service is arranged.