What next? Borough Partnership Carers Board

“I’m hopeful about this work but also cynical, will it get done?”

To ensure that responsibility for the action plan is shared across organisations in the Camden Borough Partnership, a Carer Partnership Board will be established by the end of 2024. This will be called the Borough Partnership Carers Board. The board will be responsible for holding the action plan and maintaining its accountability and momentum. The partnership board will track progress of the areas for action and ensure that the principles are considered in all work. The board will include carers, Councillors, and senior representatives from across the Borough Partnership. The board will be connected to other decision-making groups, such as the Health and Wellbeing Board and Health and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee, to ensure that actions can be agreed and prioritised at the highest level.

As part of the commitment to carers, there will also be three roles: a Carers Project Lead, Carers Project Officer and Carers Support Officer supporting the work of the action plan and embedding the partnership board. These roles will likely start in Autumn 2024 and funding has been agreed for two years. A budget has also been identified, which will be used to support the running of the board, for example on communication, but will also be used by the board to deliver the actions within the plan.

The working group will continue to be responsible for the daily delivery of the action plan priorities, monitoring progress of any workstreams (subgroups that have been created on specific actions) and maintaining oversight of plans. The working group will report to the board.

The launch of the Carers Action Plan follows a recent change in operational delivery of Adult Social Care to a neighbourhood approach, and the development of a pilot Integrated Neighbourhood Team launching in East Camden. These transformation initiatives reflect Camden’s move to delivering social care support at a local, place-based level, focussed on working in collaborative and co-located way with people drawing on support, community services and health providers. The set-up and delivery of the Borough Partnership Carers Board will both learn from and enable the development of this place-based approach through its own multi-stakeholder coordination and partnership working, and will be tasked to ensure that carers voices and carer responsibilities are visible and embedded throughout.