Buckinghamshire All-Age Carers Strategy 2025 to 2030

We asked for your views on our draft All-Age Carers Strategy. We asked whether you felt we had identified the right priorities to support our unpaid carers, or if there are other priorities we should focus on.  

The consultation ran from 4 November to 15 December 2024. 

We received 32 online responses to the consultation. Our previous engagement activity to inform the priorities for the strategy draft received 259 responses.  

The key findings were: 

• 93% of respondents strongly agreed or agreed with priority 1 - to provide a system that best works for carers, by joining up services and identifying carers at the earliest stage 
• 81% of respondents strongly agreed or agreed with priority 2 – to ensure carers can find information and advice they need easily, when they need it 
• 94% of respondents strongly agreed or agreed with priority 3 – to support our carers’ health and wellbeing, helping them to access support and balance their life outside of their caring role 
• 68% of respondents strongly agreed or agreed with priority 4 – to support carers to access employment, to minimise the financial impact of caring 

We identified four key themes from your feedback and updated our strategy and delivery action plan to address these. 

Key feedback theme: Carers struggle to navigate existing information: 

• we have worked alongside carers to redesign the council’s web pages for carers 
• we have launched a pilot with ‘Mobilise’, a digital platform providing  information and resources 
• we will deliver a communications awareness campaign on how carers can access support 

Key feedback theme: Carers do not have capacity to consider their own health and wellbeing: 

• we will develop a targeted approach to identify and better support older age carers with planning for the future 
• we will work with schools to help young people balance their caring responsibilities with education, social interaction and overall wellbeing 
• We will work with health to promote NHS health checks for carers  

Key feedback theme: Carers are frustrated that they need to relay their circumstances to multiple professionals: 

• we will strengthen the process for identifying and providing support to adult carers, with online self-referral options 
• we will review the information that is recorded about carers across the system and improve the process of sharing this information across the partnership 
• we will work with the commissioned provider to ensure the first contact with carers meets their immediate need with easily accessible information 

Key feedback theme: Financial barriers are an added, unnecessary stressor for carers: 

• we have revised priority four (support for access to employment) to reflect the circumstances of retired carers 
• we will work with the Department for Work and Pensions to ensure information and guidance on benefits and financial support available for carers is accessible 
• we will develop a toolkit for carers on steps they could take to further minimise financial hardship 
• we will work with businesses to review the existing concessions open to carers across Buckinghamshire and opportunities to enhance this offer 
• we will develop carers-inclusive workforce guidance to promote best practice across the business sector in Buckinghamshire 

The revised 2025-26 All-Age Carers Strategy and delivery action plan were approved by the Council’s Cabinet at a meeting on 11 February 2025.  

View the report to Cabinet. 

We will begin activity to deliver the action plan supporting the strategy in April 2025. 

View the Buckinghamshire Council news release.