Carers Voice

Support for carers to get their voices heard, so they can influence health and social care provision and the services of Carers Support Centre.

Our job is to help give carers a voice. The council and NHS are legally obliged to ask people who use different services, including carers, how they should best provide them. We want to give you the opportunity to tell us, and the organisations which affect your life, what you think about the services and support that you use.

Local services say that they are keen to hear carers’ views, so this is your chance to change things, just by sharing your ideas, your experiences and concerns,

Carers Voice meetings

A good way to give your view is to come to one of our Carers Voice meetings.

These are free events for carers, where you can meet with other carers, hear about changes to services and support, and ask questions directly to health and social care service providers.

We publicise these in Carers News (our magazine and e-bulletin for carers) and here.

Carer participation

There are opportunities for carers to participate in the process of developing services. This is where carers who have an idea for a service change can help to design it as an equal partner with professionals, and where they can really contribute to ongoing service delivery.

You can volunteer to be part of specific group or you may want to consider becoming a carer representative, having input to a council board. Carer representatives attend meetings alongside senior representatives from Health and Social Care. They can take carers’ concerns and issues to these meetings, get updates from professionals and ask questions. They ensure that carers’ issues are kept on the agenda for statutory agencies.

Your Park

Help make Bristol and Bath’s parks more accessible for disabled people and unpaid carers

We are working with Your Park Bristol & Bath to make Bristol’s parks more accessible for disabled people and unpaid carers.

Last year, Your Park Bristol & Bath spoke to local disabled people and unpaid carers through their ‘Not just a check box’ research.

Everyone they spoke to said that parks needed to be looked at as a whole and audited by people with lived experience if accessibility is to improve.

In response to this, we are working with them and disabled people and unpaid carers to develop the UK’s first Community Led Park Access Assessment (CLPAA). CLPAAs will help disabled people and unpaid carers assess the accessibility of a park and make recommendations for how to improve it. We hope that the resulting resources will be used nationwide.

Your Park Bristol & Bath has secured funding from Natural England to do the first stage of development. This work will get us to be the point of being able to test CLPAAs in parks.

Help to create an accessible Hartcliffe Millennium Green

Do you care for someone who lives in Hartcliffe or Withywood?

Working once again with Your Park, we want to make Hartcliffe Millennium Green more accessible, but we need your help.

Between November 2023 and March 2024, we need local carers to bring their expertise and ideas to three workshops, as well as make a visit to the park and contribute to an in-person event.

Not only will you be helping to improve the area for the local community, but you will also be given a £20 voucher of your choice for each hour of your involvement, and your transport and lunch costs will be covered.

Interested? Get in touch with our Policy Engagement Lead, Susy

Email Susy: susyg@carerssupportcentre.org.uk or call her on 07521 945 943.

Have your say on ‘Ageing Well’

Have your say on ‘Ageing Well’ in the Innercity and East Bristol Locality. In Inner City and East Bristol locality, we are passionate about involving people who are closest to the problem in developing interventions.

We are keen for older people and their carers to get involved in developing the Ageing Well Program in Central and East Bristol.

Ageing Well’s goal is to provide better health and social care support for people 50+, enabling them to live independent and healthy lives for longer.

Our priorities are to provide more targeted and accessible health care support for people who are weaker, suffering from poor health and live in their own homes and improve health care for people in care homes.

Develop community based assets to reduce loneliness and isolation and champion a ‘need not age early ‘ approach. If you are interested, please get in touch with Susy Giullari, Carers Policy, Engagement & Involvement Lead: susyg@carerssupportcentre.org.uk or call her on: 07521 945 943.

Parent carers

If you are a parent caring for a child with additional needs, and want to get your views heard, go to:
Bristol Parent Carers
South Glos Parents and Carers 

SG LDPB Reports
The South Gloucestershire Council Learning Disabilities Partnership Board want to know about the education, employment, transport, and housing issues that you face as a result of caring for someone with a learning disability. You can now read the report below.

Contact us with your views
If you want to get your voice heard as a carer, but you are not sure how, please contact Susy Giullari, Carers Policy, Engagement & Involvement Lead. We are always happy to hear carers’ views. Email Susy: susyg@carerssupportcentre.org.uk or call her on 07521 945 943.