City council approves £1.7m of contracts to support unpaid carers across Peterborough
Peterborough City Council’s cabinet has approved two contracts worth £1.7 million to services which support carers of all ages across the city.
At a meeting on June 17, cabinet members decided to authorise the award of a £1.14 million five-year contract to an adult carers service named Making Space and a £566,370 contract of the same duration to a service named Centre 33, aimed at helping young carers.
A report put before the cabinet stated that the council’s All Age Carer Service “provides support to carers of all ages, ensuring carers are recognised, valued, and supported to maintain their caring role for as long as possible, and appropriate”.
It added: “It is integral in achieving the council’s priority to support early intervention and prevention of more intensive and intrusive services.”
Within the report, it highlighted that out of 608 active carers in Peterborough, there were 146 young carers who were under the age of 18.
The report continued: “It is widely acknowledged that unpaid carers provide a hugely important role in saving the economy money and they should be suitably supported in this role for as long as possible.
“Centre for Care research found that the economic value of the support provided by unpaid carers in England and Wales is an estimated £162 billion per year.”
Speaking at the cabinet meeting, Cllr Shabina Quayyum, cabinet member for adults and health, said the new commission will aim to do things such as “identify carers early rather than late” and provide “emotional and psychological support” for them.
Stephen Taylor, executive director of adult social care at the council, said the authority is “making really good progress” in the area of support for carers.
Cllr Katy Cole, cabinet member for children’s services, said: “I’m really pleased to see there is a separate section for young carers who, in schools, are supported by their teachers.
“Young carers are often the unsung carers in the family. I think it’s really important that this contract has a specific element towards young carers who will be caring for loved ones from the moment they get up in the morning to the moment they go to bed, and trying to balance school life as well.”