Staffordshire's Caring Face

There are over 90,000 carers in Staffordshire and over the past year, we've been working hard to find out how we can work with carers more closely to tailor services to meet their needs and those of the people they care for.

Your Staffordshire met up with one inspirational carer who agreed to share his story and tell us why he's become so involved in working with the county council to help improve services for all carers.

Colin's story

Colin Savage chatting about the recently developed Carers Communication Plan with Sami Turner, of the Social Care and Health Team.

Colin Savage is known to many carers, particularly in and around the Lichfield area.  He often gets an informal call from someone asking him to raise an issue or help out with a query and in his capacity as Chair of Lichfield's Locality Board; he's in a good position to help. 

But Colin's work doesn't just stop there - he is also a member of the Lichfield Carers Forum, Chair of the Countywide Carers Group and Chair of the Learning Disabilities Partnership Board.

Colin has a 37-year-old daughter, Nina, with profound learning disabilities and as a result of his experiences over the years he is keen to dedicate his spare time to improving services for carers.  Nina lives in Scotch Orchard, a residential home for people with learning disabilities and Colin visits her on a regular basis.  Colin said: "I am in a position whereby I can give my time to these groups because Nina doesn't live at home but at the same time I can fully empathise with carers and understand what they are going through"

Colin is positive about the relationship that the county council is now building with carers. He said: "There is a very welcome chain of involvement between service users, carers and the council. We have a responsibility to shout about what we want and the county council has to be there to listen to us and this is starting to happen more and more.  It's not always possible to achieve everything that everybody wants but having their views listened to and taken into account means a lot to carers.  We are in a fortunate position in Staffordshire to have in place existing consultation mechanisms - our task now is to jointly fine tune these so that meetings and events are valuable to all parties."

"There's still lots to do," added Colin, "we still need to get more carers involved and reach out to those people who don't know that there is help and support available to them.  We also need to make sure that we clearly define the roles of our groups to make sure that they achieve what they set out to do. My message to other carers would be that meetings and groups do matter - people can raise their concerns, hopes and expectations and they will be listened to."

"During the past year, we have held events in every district to support and celebrate the work of carers," said County Councillor Susan Woodward, Cabinet Member for Healthier Communities and Older People. "These were really well attended and provided advice to carers about where and how they can get help (support).  We worked closely in partnership with a number of agencies to achieve this.

She added: "There is an ever-increasing number of ways for carers to communicate with us and have a real impact on services and policy development including the Carers EPanel and the Adult Care Panel.

"We have also held a number of 'one off' events involving carers such as the 'Your Voice' day at Uttoxeter racecourse, where carers from throughout the county had the opportunity to air their views and speak to social care and health staff and myself about what really matters to them."

Getting involved

If you have caring responsibilities and would like to get involved with any of our groups you can contact either the District Director for your area or Christine Whitehead District Director for Tamworth who is the lead for Carers.

If you want to find out about the support available please contact:

Carers Association Southern Staffordshire, the Carers Centre, Austin Friars, Stafford, ST17 4AP
Telephone 01785 606675 or e-mail info@carersinformation.org.uk

North Staffs Carers Association, Unit 2, Burslem Enterprise Centre, Moorland Road, Burslem, Stoke on Trent, Staffs, ST6 1JQ
Telephone 01782 834836 or e-mail nsca@supanet.com

ELITE (organisation which supports users of Direct Payments from Staffordshire County Council)
Telephone 01782 634379 or e-mail elite.northstaffordshire@ntlworld.com

Last Modified: 25/09/2008 11:34:04
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