Moriarty, Jo

The Care Act 2014 amended legislation relating to government responsibilities for adults with care needs. It set out new statutory responsibilities for the support of family or informal carers. As part of a study investigating the impact of the Care Act 2014 on family carers in England, we undertook a contextual literature review, focusing on parliamentary debates available online from Hansard. We describe the content of debates seeking to amend the law relating to carers and aspirations for the proposed reforms.

Outreach is advocated as a way of improving the uptake of services among underserved populations and of filling the gaps between mainstream services and the populations they are intended to support. Despite the policy emphasis on providing better help for family carers, research consistently shows that many of those providing unpaid care to a family member or friend report difficulties in finding out about the assistance to which they are entitled.

While there is increased recognition of the role of family carers in supporting adults with social care needs, some groups of carers are overlooked or hidden from professional view. Carers of people with substance misuse problems may be among this group since they are at risk of feeling guilty and stigmatised; targeting and eligibility criteria may concentrate professionals’ activities on people with high levels of need for practical support and there may be complex family dynamics where the role of carer does not fit traditional models.

Design/methodology/approach – A total of 86 semi-structured interviews were undertaken with a purposeful sample of social care commissioners, family carers, representatives of voluntary organisations and carers’ workers based in four contrasting localities in England.

This briefing provides an overview of the research literature on the barriers currently facing black and minority ethnic (BME) people in accessing dementia care services. It also looks at some of the ways in which services can become better at responding to the needs of (BME) people in their local area. The briefing begins by outlining the main issues and why it is important to address existing barriers.

This article describes some of the more recently established ways the Alzheimer's Society is using to support people with dementia and their carers living in the area of Derby, UK. The article covers Alzheimer Cafes, pamper days, arts and crafts days, and a carers support group.

A study by the National Institute for Social Work suggests that estimates can be made about the length of time that a person with dementia will need community and long term care services. This can be done based on an assessment of the severity of dementia at the time of the community care assessment. The author highlights the need for an appraisal of local old age psychiatry services and eligibility criteria, and the importance of monitoring carers' ability and willingness to provide care.

In England, voluntary organisations such as the Carers Trust and Alzheimer's Society play major roles in providing practical help and support to family carers. This article draws on a large study looking at social care practice with carers to illustrate how changes in social care commissioning and cuts in funding have created difficulties for organisations such as these. It asks whether contracting policies based on competition between providers threaten collaborative campaigning and strategic alliances.

The term ‘personalisation’ means different things to different people but, as used both by the previous Labour and current Coalition governments, it is about tailoring services to people’s own circumstances and giving them more control over the amount and type of support they receive. This briefing looks at how personalisation can increase access to healthcare for people from black and minority ethnic communities, but also considers some of the challenges that it may bring.