Strengthening support for BME carers

We want to ensure that all carers can benefit from the support we offer. To that end we have identified some groups of carers who we know we have to work harder to reach.

For example we know there are 500,000 Black Minority Ethnic (BME) carers in England. BME carers provide more care than average. They face additional difficulties as they care, struggling with language barriers, accessing culturally appropriate services and with stereotyping around caring. This puts them at greater risk of ill health, poverty, loss of employment and social exclusion.

In developing our new service we will be working with BME carers and organisations – including Hikmat Devon www.hikmatdevon.co.uk – to develop a plan to ensure that this is achieved.

We will identify staff who will act as local champions for the needs of BME carers and help to deliver the plans, which will include:

• Training for staff and volunteers
• Community based outreach work and publicity
• Carers support groups and other activities/events

If you have ideas or suggestions for how we can improve our work with BME carers please get in touch – we are very keen to hear from you.