Adult Carer Support Plan
What is an Adult Carer Support Plan?
An Adult Carer Support Plan is carried out to identify how being a carer is impacting on your health and wellbeing. One of our Social Workers or someone from the South Ayrshire Carers Centre will arrange a time to meet and have an informal discussion about your caring role.
The support plan gives you the opportunity to identify the following:
- your thoughts and feelings about caring
- your relationship with the cared for person
- your social and leisure activities
- your physical and mental health
- your education and work life goals
- what would make things easier for you to carry out your caring role
- whether a short break is needed
- what would happen in an emergency, if you were unable to care.
The Adult Carer Support Plan is designed to improve and support your health and wellbeing and all carers are entitled to one, regardless of the amount or type of care provided, financial means or level of need for support. You don't necessarily have to live with the person you are looking after or be caring full-time, someone who is juggling work and care, for example, could find that this is having a big impact on their life.
If you are sharing caring responsibilities with another person, or more than one person, including a child under 18, you can each have an Adult Carers Support Plan. Young carers who are helping to care for a sibling should be offered a separate Young Carers Statement.
When your Adult Carer Support Plan is complete we will let you know whether your needs are "eligible" for support from South Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership. We use Local Eligibility Criteria (PDF) [788KB] to help us make this decision.
Even if you do not meet the eligibility criteria you are still entitled to support, advice and guidance from a range of relevant community based services, for example, help from South Ayrshire Carers Centre. We will only provide funded support to carers who have been assessed as having a critical level of needs.