A consultation exercise was launched today (September 29) which seeks to gather views of unpaid carers and young carers in the city in order to understand how the pandemic has affected them.
The consultation, run by the Dundee Carers Partnership, will seek to gain carers experiences during the pandemic, including challenges they have faced, and to better understand what has worked well, and not so well for them.
Supporting carers is a key priority of the Dundee Health and Social Care Partnership and it remains committed to involving carers in their role in order to understand their needs and priorities, particularly within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to respond to these needs.
The current local carer’s strategy ‘A Caring Dundee’ extends from 2017 to 2020. During late 2019 and early 2020 the Carers Partnership completed a review of ‘A Caring Dundee’ Strategic Plan reviewing progress in achieving the actions and priorities for supporting carers in Dundee. This work included the production of a Carers Partnership Performance Report 2017-2019.
The Performance Report highlights the work of the Dundee Carers Partnership, as well as a much wider network of agencies, who have worked alongside carers, young carers and communities to realise the ambitions of the strategy.
Chair of the Dundee Health and Social Care Partnership Integration Joint Board, Trudy McLeay, said: “We understand that the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic represents a significant and unpresented challenge for carers and the people that they care for.
“The pandemic has brought into stark focus the need to support carers and ensure that they have the right support.
“Since the start of the pandemic, a number of temporary changes have been made to services and supports across Dundee, in order to delay the spread of the virus. Many organisations have had to rapidly adapt and introduce new ways of working to deliver services safely during the pandemic. In some households unpaid carers have taken on new or increased responsibilities during this period.
“I am looking forward to listening to the experiences of carers in the city and working with them to ensure that our services and supports meet their needs.
“I would encourage any carer interested to take part to make sure we hear the views of as many carers as possible”.
Carers who are seeking additional support at this time can visit carersofdundee.org.uk for information or telephone Dundee Carers Centre 01382 200422 for advice.
To take part in the consultation or for more information please contact Megan Clark by email: megan.clark@dundeecarerscentre.org.uk. To access the online survey please visit https://carersofdundee.org/
If you require assistance please contact Dundee Carers Centre.
The performance report it is available to view online.
Dundee City Council
Dundee draws skilled workers from a 60-minute catchment population of 640,000 and has a local population of over 140,000. The availability of a large pool of highly skilled labour is a key feature in the Dundee economy. Flexibility in the labour force is currently more prevalent in Dundee than in Scotland as a whole. All forms of labour market flexibility - part-time, temporary employment, self-employment and shift work - are widely operational within the city. Labour force stability in the city is excellent, enabling companies to plan with confidence. Labour turnover levels are less than 5% and absenteeism averages 2%.
