Supporting carers
Understanding how best carers can be supported is vital and needs to be informed by evidence and knowledge.
There has been relatively little attention directed to examining what makes a difference to carers or which interventions can be judged to be (cost) effective.
This page and accompanying film are part of a resource that presents findings from a scoping review of knowledge and research evidence relating to carers and carers lives and issues. These findings should inform future research, policy development and improve practice in delivering carer support.
The review showed that in recent years, there has been unprecedented policy commitment to carer support. More specifically, there has been a focus on the importance of assessing and addressing carers’ needs in national carers’ strategies and legislation, including the Care Act 2014.
This latest legislation introduced new rights for adult carers in relation to assessment and support planning, information and advice. Although the emphasis on assessing carers’ needs has increased, translation into practice continues to be challenging. For example, the number of carers’ assessments carried out remains low overall and their quality variable between councils. There is also evidence carers are still struggling to get the support that they need to care, work and have a life outside caring.
Policy and research attention has also been increasingly directed at examining interventions to support carers and identifying what works. However, evidence is generally inconclusive and of variable quality. An underlying problem is that evaluating the effectiveness of interventions is complex. Whilst this in part reflects the diversity of the carer population, there are several other contributory factors. One is rooted in the nature of the dyadic caring relationship. Whilst services may be developed to support carers specifically (such as respite and breaks from caring), services provided to support a person needing care (such as home care) may also benefit the carer. Nonetheless, the scoping review showed there were also some examples of interventions where evidence is more conclusive. These are:
- interventions for dementia carers
- professionally-led support groups
- meditation-based interventions
- psychosocial ICT interventions
- educational programmes for carers of older people with dementia
- psychosocial interventions
- interventions targeting communication and education
- coping strategy therapy sessions
- cognitive reframing
Links and related resources
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Commissioners and managers Open
- Employment support for carers
- Evaluation of Re:Connect and Time and Space peer mentoring projects
- Meeting the health and wellbeing needs of young carers: case studies
- Carers Action Plan 2018-2020: supporting carers today.
- Personal health budgets and Integrated Personal Commissioning quick guide: carers
- Making it happen
- Spotlight on a carer's journey: exploring what works in supporting carers through the Care Act
- An integrated approach to identifying and assessing carer health and wellbeing
- Evaluation of the Older Carers Project delivered by Every-One
- Young carer transition in practice under the Care Act 2014
- Carers’ Hub Toolkit for commissioners: supporting you to map and plan local services with and for carers
- Commissioning for carers: key principles for clinical commissioning groups
- Making it real for carers
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Frontline professionals and support organisations Open
- Training resources to help with improving the identification and support of young carers
- Social work practice with carers
- Supporting young carers and their families: an introductory guide for professionals
- Young carer transition in practice under the Care Act 2014
- Carers and communities: a guide to understand why carers need communities and communities need carers
- Assessing carer's needs: a short guide to taking account of everyone in the family who cares
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Carers and people who use services Open
- Top tips for supporting working carers
- Time to think about you
- A practical guide to healthy caring
- Being heard: a self-advocacy guide for carers
- Advice for carers: a practical guide
- Supporting working carers: a guide to requesting flexible working
- Caring for someone with dementia: a practical guide to help you
- Looking after someone: information and support for carers
Explore SCIE’s wider index of content on carers.
Search carers resources from Social Care Online, the UK’s largest database of care knowledge and research..
Find out more about this knowledge review
Downloads
- Seeing the wood for the trees. Carer-related research and knowledge (NIHR SSCR scoping review)
- Utilising carer related research and knowledge: a scoping review and information resource. Research findings (NIHR SSCR summary version)
- Seeing the wood for the trees. Carer-related research and knowledge: a scoping review (Full report)