Issue - meetings

Flintshire Young Carers Support Service

Meeting: 20/01/2022 - Social & Health Care Overview & Scrutiny Committee (Item 58)

58 Flintshire Young Carers Support Service pdf icon PDF 139 KB

Additional documents:

Decision:

That Members support the progress of the Flintshire Young Carers Support Service and development of the new Young Carers ID Card.

Minutes:

The Senior Manager – Children and Workforce reminded the Committee that back in July 2020 the Young Carers Service was transferred to NEWCIS and as requested by the Committee this report was an overview of the positive outcomes that had been achieved for young carers within Flintshire.

 

The Planning & Development Officer – Children and Workforce gave an overview of the key successes as listed in 1.10 of the report since the Service had been operational.

 

Alice Thelwell – Young Carers Project informed the Committee of some of the highlights of the last 12 months:-

 

·         Launch of the Carers ID Card in March 2021  

·         Events that had been held

·         Planned events to be held

·         Production of Wellbeing Booklet

·         Counselling Sessions

·         Grants for respite

 

The Chief Executive – NEWCIS reported that with the help of partnerships Young Carers have eased smoothly into Adult Services.  She thanked the Senior Manager – Children and Workforce and the team for their continued support and advice on funding which had helped in offering different services.  They were hoping to hold a North Wales Young Carer Festival this year along with other breaks away as unfortunately things were cancelled last year due to the pandemic.

 

Councillor Mackie stated that this was a well run, much needed service provided by enthusiastic people but questioned the budget that was reported in the report compared to the demand.  In response the Chief Executive – NEWCIS stated that that was the Contract that was in place and that they had received additional money in the last 12 months which enabled them to appoint a temporary member of staff which she was confident would now be secure due to the help from the Senior Manager – Children and Workforce in gaining more funding and she hoped to be taking on another member of staff. They did have problems in the summer with unavoidable staffing issues but had assistance from Children’s Services to help them through.  She stated that if ‘Action for Children’ are successful with the Family First Tender this would enable NEWCIS to gain an additional post which would be a positive move going forward. 

 

The Senior Manager – Children and Workforce agreed that it was a fair question that was raised by Councillor Mackie and that the service was commissioned on funding they had. He stated that they were victims of their own success due to the excellent service they provided. 

 

The Committee agreed that it was an excellent report and thanked all staff involved in the running of the service. 

 

The recommendations in the report were moved by Councillor Paul Cunningham and seconded by Councillor Dave Mackie.                  

 

RESOLVED:

 

That Members support the progress of the Flintshire Young Carers Support Service and development of the new Young Carers ID Card.