North Lanarkshire Carers Together

Services Offered

• Carers
• Young Carers

												

																									Initial Contact Support


																									


																									The staff at the office will usually be the first people you speak to when contacting NLCT. We will provide a listening ear, understand the type of information, advice or service(s) you are looking for, and aim to provide this in a way that you can understand and ensure it is of value to your needs. Our dedicated Information & Engagement Team will look after you at a time which Carers often describe as difficult when reaching out for support.


																									


																									Independent Carer Advocacy


																									


																									NLCT Independent Carer Advocacy Service is available to adult Carers over 18 years of age living in North Lanarkshire. The service ensures that Carers have full access to their rights as outlined within the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016. We know that health and social care systems can often be difficult to navigate, coupled with the fact that many people struggle to understand their rights as unpaid Carers, and our service seeks to address those issues.


																									


																									Carer Support Network


																									


																									NLCT facilitate and coordinate this programme of work. Since the end of 2021 Carers have been able to access new services across North Lanarkshire that provide short breaks from their caring roles and allow them to take some quality time out for themselves. In partnership with Health & Social Care, NLCT supported the consultation of Carers on the design of these new services. Carers told us that service providers needed to think outside the box and address the need for time out that didn’t only take the form of an annual short break grant, or holiday, and a break that was easily accessible and regular in the community. A range of Carer Breather funded projects across North Lanarkshire have now been set up to offer activities Carers said they wanted. These include art therapy, health and wellness activities, holistic support, and groups supporting people caring for loved ones with learning disabilities or living with long term conditions.


																									


																									Carer Aware


																									


																									NLCT have designed and deliver Carer Aware Workshops for our partners and carer groups across North Lanarkshire to ensure Carers and services are informed on the rights carers have. These sessions empower Carers to access support and services and supports our partners to best provide support and services to the Carers they come into contact with. The course is interactive with attendees encouraged to participate in discussions to facilitate and support peer learning.


																									


																									Carer Forum


																									


																									NLCT’s Carer Forum is a group of Carers who meet in person or digitally 4 times a year, and online via a closed social media platform to help shape local and national policy that affects Carers and the people they care for. It is an important role and ensures Carers’ collective voices are heard by policy makers. The Carer Forum has formed responses to the Scottish Government on upcoming changes to Carers Allowance, to the proposed National Care Service, and helped shape new services that provide short breaks for Carers. The forum ensures Carers are at the heart of new services in North Lanarkshire and NLCT’s guiding principle is ‘We Asked, You Said, We Did’.


																									


																									Carer Podcast


																									


																									NLCT were delighted to launch our new podcast, Carers Together early in 2022. A podcast is an audio programme, a little like a talk radio programme, but you subscribe to it on your smartphone, tablet or laptop and listen to it at any time which suits you. A great way to spend a spare half hour for some you time! Our inaugural podcast was an interview with the Still Game actor Jane McCarry who spoke at length about her caring role. You can find NLCT Carers Together podcast on all the usual Android, Apple and Spotify platforms.


																									Family Support Service


																									


																									North Lanarkshire Council: Education & Families have commissioned North Lanarkshire Carers Together to deliver a Family Support Service to support parent carers and their child or young person living at home who has a need for additional support. Whole family support is tailored to meet the needs of each individual family, and this is aligned with the Ten Principles of Intensive Family Support within The Promise as well as the child/young person’s Wellbeing Plan and underpinned by Children’s Rights. Families can access the service via a referral from the child/young person’s school following the child’s wellbeing meeting, or a referral from the Neurodevelopmental Service. The family will then be contacted by one of our Family Support Workers.