Dementia Carers Respite is seeking to expand cooperation with local adult social care services to enable more family carers of people living with dementia to access free professional respite care.
Charity representatives Walid Marzouk and Tim Garnham met with Craig McArdle, Director of Adult Social Services, on the 15th September at his council offices in Aylesbury for a relationship review meeting.
The meeting provided an opportunity to update Mr McArdle on the charity’s progress since their previous meeting two years ago, including the growth of its respite services and care-coordination support for dementia family carers.
The charity shared feedback gathered through qualitative client interviews, together with results from its satisfaction survey, which recorded an 86% satisfaction rate among respondents.
Walid and Tim also explained the charity’s eligibility criteria for free respite and outlined its care and care-coordination process. They highlighted that the charity works with professional care contractors who operate under the Care Quality Commission (CQC) framework and are required to have a rating of at least Good.
A significant part of the meeting focused on how the charity and council could strengthen cooperation and increase referrals.
Dementia Carers Respite aims to support eligible family carers who cannot afford private care but may also fall outside the statutory eligibility criteria for council-funded support. For these carers, professional respite can provide essential time away from demanding caring responsibilities.
The charity is now awaiting feedback from Mr McArdle once he had the opportunity to hold internal discussions on potential areas for further cooperation and referrals.
Walid and Tim described the meeting as extremely positive and expressed their gratitude to Mr McArdle for meeting with them and for his constructive approach towards the charity’s free services.
Walid Marzouk said: “We are grateful to Craig McArdle for taking the time to meet with us. Our aim is to
reach more dementia family carers who urgently need respite but cannot afford private care.”
Tim Garnham added: “Our free professional respite service gives eligible carers valuable time away from their caring responsibilities.”
