It was apparent at the recent meeting of the standing commission on carers that good progress has been made on the development of the government's Carers' Strategy, which is due to be announced in the early summer. Given that it will be a 10 year plan, says Judith Cameron, it is only reasonable that some of its aims and objectives won't be immediately accessible, but a substantial part of the New Deal for Carers should be up and running before the end of the summer.
The telephone helpline for carers, offering a one point information service, won't be available until spring 2009, but its basic website should be live in July this year. A major issue for carers is not being able to discover what help exists already and having just one point of contact offering reliable and up to date information is an excellent idea. However, while eligibility criteria for obtaining help differ according to where you live, I fear this service will prove to be difficult to deliver. Nevertheless, in the long term, there needs to be uniform criteria across the country to access community services.
The other strand of the New Deal is the proposed 'expert carers programme' - although that won't be its official name. I am sceptical about the chances of this ambitious programme being able to achieve its early objectives, but by the end of the year, we were told that courses will have started. They will offer carers personalised support, training and information.
In its first year, 50% of its target audience must be 'hard to reach' carers, ie those who offer more than 50 hours of care a week and those from ethnic minorities. Trainers are now actively being sought and grants made available. Although ringfencing is ruled out, the commission was assured that 'cost shunting' will not be tolerated. Neither how these carers are to be identified, nor how 'cost shunting' by local authorities or primary care trusts can be avoided was made clear.
By the very nature of their occupation, carers don't get out a lot - especially those who care for more than 50 hours a week. Given that accessing reliable replacement care is already a major concern, I am not sure that the uptake for a training course on being a carer will be as high as its designers hope. It will also be important that the training is not presented in a patronising manner and that carers know that the trainers have personal experience of caring.
Aggressive marketing of both the above initiatives is paramount. I can't help the cynical side of my nature wondering if this will ever happen - after all, while benefits and services are not accessed by carers, they don't cost anything.
Although I do believe the minister Ivan Lewis is genuine in his support for carers, unless a total overhaul of the manner in which caring is valued and paid for in this country is undertaken, helplines and training programmes will just scratch the surface of the problem. Let's hope, when the Carers' Strategy is announced, it will do more than that.
Judith Cameron is a member of the standing commission on carers and a former Guardian columnist.
