The Carers Strategy

The Edinburgh Carer Strategy 2023-26, approved at EIJB on 8 August 2023, has been co-produced by the Edinburgh Carers Strategic Partnership Group. The Strategy sets out how planning partners will enhance carer support, reflecting the Scottish Government’s commitments set out in the Carers (Scotland Act 2016) and reflecting the vision for improved health and social care support, set out in the Independent Review of Adult Social Care and in the revised National Carers Strategy 2023-2026.

The Strategy recognises that unpaid care is vital to how social care is provided, and that the value of the dedication and expertise of carers cannot be overstated. The COVID-19 pandemic created significant difficulties and hardships for many carers and the pressures of the past two years have left many carers at breaking point. Carers are in acute need of support and now, more than ever, steps need to be taken to address the problems caused by the pandemic as well as the long-term, systemic issues that continue to affect unpaid carers.

The Edinburgh Carer Strategy is built around the five key themes of the National Strategy:

  • Living With COVID-1.
  • Valuing, Recognising and Supporting Carers.
  • Health and Social Care Support.
  • Social and financial inclusion.

The Strategy identifies organisational and personal outcomes for each theme and identifies a range of actions to ensure carers are supported, in a joined up and cohesive way, with the aim of getting it right for every carer. The Strategy will continue to progress the six priority areas of the Edinburgh Joint Carer Strategy 2019-2022:

  • Identifying carers.
  • Information and advice.
  • Carer health and wellbeing.
  • Short breaks.
  • Young carers.
  • Personalising support for carers.

The vision for the refreshed Strategy is that Edinburgh is a city where carers feel valued and well supported and the actions identified within the Strategy take a person-centred, early intervention and preventative approach to provision of support.

A Performance and evaluation framework is in place and is being further developed to provide a focus on outcomes for carers across the strategy and will report on both quantitative and qualitative data. Carer Strategy Performance and Evaluation Reports will be presented to the IJB’s Performance and Delivery Committee on an annual basis. The latest report was agreed by Performance and Delivery Committee in August 2023 and can be found here: Unpaid Carers Year 2 Performance and Evaluation

Report and evaluation relating to Year 1 of contracted provisions, supporting our Edinburgh Joint Carers Strategy.

Our year 1 evaluation was presented to the Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership Executive Management Team in March 2022 and to our Performance and Development Committee that same month. The report is published and available to download.