Market overview: support for carers

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Overview

A carer is anyone, child or adult, who looks after a family member, partner or friend who needs help because of their illness, frailty, disability, mental health or substance use and cannot cope without their support. They do not get a wage for the care they give, although they may get welfare benefits for caring.

Bradford Council commissions a comprehensive carer support service, provided by Carers’ Resource. The service includes:

• One-to-one advice and guidance
• Support groups and social activities
• Wellbeing grants to relieve stress and support carers’ health
• Help with employment, training and education
• Help with planning for emergencies and accessing breaks
• Administration of the Household Support Fund for carers needing financial help
• A Care Navigator team based in Bradford Royal Infirmary and Airedale Hospital. Navigators work with carers during hospital discharge to make sure the right support is in place and carers know what help is available.
• Digital inclusion support to help unpaid carers build confidence using technology.

We also support carers through access to respite and breaks. Specialist services include:

• Alternatives to Respite – this is a service that helps carers to plan respite through holidays, activities and day trips
• West Yorkshire Carers Break Service – (“The Caring Kind Project”) this service works hospitality, tourism, culture and leisure businesses to identify break opportunities that they will offer free of charge to carers, connecting carers to breaks through a digital platform

Further information about the support available to carers is available within our Carers Strategy 2024 – 2029.

Current situation

There are more than 45,000 adult carers, 9% of whom are working, and 2,000 young carers in Bradford District and Craven. Carers in Bradford District and Craven are estimated to contribute the equivalent of nearly £162bn annually to the local health and social care economy.

Our carer support service contract runs until April 2028, with options to extend. The total contract value is approximately £2.3 million over the initial four-year term. The service supports thousands of unpaid carers across Bradford, Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven. Monitoring data and feedback show strong engagement, with increasing demand expected over the coming years.

Our carer respite and breaks services are under contract until 2026. The West Yorkshire Carers Break service is funded through the national Accelerating Reform Fund.

Future demand

The Carers Strategy 2024–2029 highlights that many carers do not identify themselves as carers, so improving awareness and early identification; especially among working carers, parent carers, and carers from ethnically diverse communities, is a key priority.

The strategy outlines our other key priorities which includes ensuring our service are culturally appropriate, reaching out to carers who are isolated, respite provision, listening to carers, ensuring good information is available to carers and ensuring professionals and services are working together.

It is important that all our providers play a role in supporting carers in the District. This includes:

• Helping carers to recognise the role they are playing in someone’s life and sharing information on where to go to get support.
• Listening to carers of people they support, valuing their views and recognising their expertise.
• As an employer there is an opportunity to support carers. Organisations need to become carer aware and adopt carer aware approaches as a way to retain experienced staff.

Commissioning intentions

A delivery plan is in place to support the Council to meet the priorities set out in the Carers Strategy covering areas including culturally appropriate support, digital inclusion, and access to respite.

Our carers respite and break services will be reviewed in 2026, and our carers support service will have a full service review in 2027.

Contact details

For more information and support, or for providers who would like to informally discuss the service and opportunities available, please contact [email protected]

The Service Manager for Joint Commissioning for this area is Alexandra Lorrison. The Commissioning Manager is Shezad Ahmed.

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