Yesterday (21 November) was Carers Rights Day. I want to take the opportunity to recognise and thank all those incredible people who care for a loved one. We think there are around 20000 people in Solihull who have an unpaid caring responsibility In Solihull, but we also think that is an underestimate. Many people who do not consider themselves to be ‘a carer’ meet the definition, it is a relatively simple one, this page on the Council website makes it all clear, but In broad terms if you are providing unpaid emotional or physical support for another adult or a child with special education needs/disabilities, you are a carer.
If this applies to you or someone you know, please take a look at our support offer for carers to find out what help might be available to you. People who choose to care for their family or friends are extremely admirable and deserving of support. Last year, we asked for feedback from carers about the support we offer, and some satisfaction scores were lower than those for neighbouring councils and nationally. We took action to address this immediately and will continue to improve wherever we can. We provide information, access to breaks and help to plan ahead.
A lot of work has been done in the last year to set up our Carers Forum. At the first meeting of the forum, carers told us they wanted an opportunity to come together in person and share their views and experiences with council officers. In response to this, we’ve launched our Carers Workshop (taking place today). The workshop will explore topics including access to support services and helping carers to feel less isolated. From recent engagement with carers, we know that many are concerned about feeling socially isolated and lonely. We want to do more to connect carers to support in their communities and to existing Council support.
The forum and workshop allow us to learn from carers as they share their experiences, helping to shape the future of the support we provide for them here in Solihull.
We have also introduced a new respite at home (sitting) service – supporting carers to have a break from their caring role for a few hours at a time. pushed forward technology enabled care – a broad range of devices and systems to support people with care needs. These include medication alerts or appointment reminders, safety devices which raise the alarm if someone has a fall. If you want to read a full summary of the work done in the last year, you can have a look at this report.
On to other matters, and I want to remind everyone that the Household Support Fund continues to offer help with energy bills for those who most need it. Please take a look at this piece for more information.
Yesterday evening I spoke at the launch of the 2024 16 days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign. The event, in the Council’s Civic Suite, was hosted by our Mayor, Councillor Shahin Ashraf MBE. It was a really meaningful occasion with a deeply important purpose – around 150 women in the UK are killed each year as a result of Gender-Based violence, and around 1 in 4 women will experience domestic abuse during their lives. There were over 4000 domestic abuse incidents reported to the police in Solihull alone last year. None of this is acceptable, none of it can be allowed to continue, and we must be robust in our action against it. I want to thank the Soroptomists for their continued hard work on this issue, and I’ll be talking much more about this campaign and the work we are doing as a council to combat this terrible scourge on our society in next week’s column.
Earlier in the week, I participated in the model COP conference we hosted for local schools. Regular readers will recall that last week we focused heavily on environmental issues, and I wrote at the time that young people need little encouragement to engage with this topic. I was certainly proved right yesterday, it was inspiring to hear the children and young people speak with such passion about the global challenges we all face, and the actions they are taking at a personal and local level to help the fight against the impacts of climate change. You can read a full report from the event here.
Finally, congratulations to Naz Pathan, a senior licensing officer here at the Council, who has won a prestigious award in his field. He was victorious at the recent Institute of Licensing annual awards, winning the Jeremy Allen Award in recognition of his commitment to his profession and willingness to go above and beyond to keep people safe in every aspect of life from taxis and tourism to business and animal protection.
Thanks, and have a good weekend,
Councillor Ian Courts