Rotherham residents who care for loved ones – are they getting the support they need?

Healthwatch Rotherham was approached by the Carers Strategy Manager for Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council  at the end of March 2023 regarding a report highlighting unpaid carers in Rotherham.  They designed a survey to which 67 people responded.

Many people wanted to access support and information to help them and the person they care for, but had no knowledge of where to start, who to ask and what they qualify for. This means there are potentially thousands of unpaid carers in Rotherham missing out on vital support and information that can help them and their situation because they don’t know how to access it. This needs to change. 

When asked, the biggest improvement unpaid carers wanted to see was around an increase in the information available to them on a wealth of topics but in particular: mental health, financial information and support groups. People would like to access this information through a mixture of the internet and face to face, depending on what information they require and whether they would benefit from speaking to someone in-person. 

The majority of people would like to access this information in a ‘one stop shop’ area rather than attending several services. Over half of respondents wanted more recognition from their local provider of their role as an unpaid carer, as well as more mental and physical health support. 

In addition to this, it is clear that many services in Rotherham are disjointed and do not communicate clearly with other services. Patients would benefit from improved communication and joined up working to avoid having to chase several services at once, when time is already precious. 

Carers just want to be recognised by the local authority for the fantastic job they do on a daily basis, and to be able to access relevant support and information as and when they need it.

The report has six recommendations.