Archived decisions

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

Executive Decision Record:

1) Summary:

The following decisions were made:

1.1 That £235,396 of the carers' resource be allocated as a grants programme within the central grants process.

1.2 That individual grants are supported as proposed in the plan set out at

Appendix C.

1.3 That a small grants programme of a total value of £75,000 be supported in 2009/10. This will be a small grants programme for carers' projects and support which will be managed locally. The value of each grant will be less than £5,000 and so will not require Executive Member approval on an individual basis.

2) Reasons for the decision:

2.1 Carers play a vital role within our communities and we recognise the enormous contribution they make in Hampshire, often in very difficult and stressful circumstances.

Over the past two years, Hampshire Adult Services Department has been working closely with carers and key partners in the third sector to develop our strategic approach and commissioning response to supporting carers. This work resulted in a new strategy for carers in Hampshire which both reflects local need and supports national policy.

The strategy acts as a basis for the recommendations in this report, focusing on meeting the support needs of carers in Hampshire and national policy objectives regarding the improvement of carers' support.

2.2 During 2008/9 we were allocated additional resources for carers to progress work relating to the new national carers strategy, in particular for support and flexible respite projects. This resource has enabled us to support the local and national development priorities that carers have identified.

3) Rationale:

3.1. The additional resource available to carers was made available late in the financial year. In future years, the guidance relating to the funding requires a joint approach with the PCT. As such, the options for expending the resource in this financial year in order to achieve additional support for carers were limited.

3.2. The development work for a series of the local and national strategies in 2008 (Carers, Older Person's Mental Health, Care at the End of Life) enabled and informed key priority areas of improvement for carers and identified areas for grant funding.

3.3. Use of the grants process continues to support our work with voluntary sector partners, enabling innovation and development of new services in response to evolving opportunities and in line with supporting personalisation.

4) Conflicts of Interest:

4.1. Conflicts of interest declared by the Decision-Maker:

a) None

4.2. Conflicts of interest declared by other Executive members consulted:

a) None

5) Dispensation granted by the Standards Committee:

None

6) Any reasons for the matter being dealt with urgently:

None

7) Statement from the Decision Maker:

.