Towards 2012

Towards 2012- an action plan for carers, will be officially launched during Carers Week, 9 - 15 June 2008. The plan has been developed by a partnership made up of representatives from, carers’ organisations, council departments and NHS Lothian. A range of local voluntary and carer organisations as well as carer projects participated in the consultation on the plan, holding many local focus groups with carers for their views at the end of 2007 and most, warmly welcomed the direction of travel of Towards 2012.

The responses from unpaid carers in Edinburgh made clear their wish to be seen as key partners in providing care. In turn, their expectation was for appropriate, high quality support to help them to carry out this role.

The key concerns emerging from the consultation closely matched the areas that were consulted on. Respondents were particularly concerned about there being adequate breaks from caring, adequate respite, support, training, tailoring of services and carer identification and assessment of need. The plan has been reshaped to take on board these concerns.

Towards 2012 includes a five-year implementation plan. The Health, Social Care and Housing committee have now approved for implementation in 2008/09 actions that can be funded within the approved budget. Later in the financial year, the committee will consider funding gaps for the following two years and possible actions to meet these.

The Implementation Group is composed of key leads from council departments, NHS Lothian, Edinburgh Community Health Partnership and VOCAL. They will be responsible for leading on the implementation of Towards 2012 and reporting on progress.

The finalised Strategic Action Plan, Towards 2012 is available online via the Council and NHS Lothian website.

List of respondents (15 kB)