Care and support

Hertfordshire has been awarded Beacon Status for its work developing support for carers.

This is what the Awards Panel said about our Carers Strategy:

'Hertfordshire provides an extremely well organised, sophisticated and dynamic approach to its services based on a belief in a multi-agency approach. The depth and variety of projects and services gives many opportunities for finding and supporting carers. The Council believes in valuing carers as co-workers, partner organisations as equals and that services should be flexible, universal, innovative, directly accessible and that prevention of crisis is as important as supporting carers who are in difficulties. They also believed that they had a long way to go before every carer in Hertfordshire had the optimal experience of their services.

From all the evidence produced, in particular that given by carers, the panel were convinced that Hertfordshire matched their aspirations with their services. We were impressed by the depth of understanding of the issues, the thoroughness of the planning and that this enthusiasm and understanding was spread throughout all the partner agencies and departments. This is an outstanding service.'


We acknowledge the support of our partners in the NHS and particularly Carers in Hertfordshire without whom we would not have achieved this award.

We know we still have a long way to go; but the Panel were particularly impressed that carers, some of whom had not had positive experiences in the past, were happy to talk about how real improvements were being made.

Thank you all for your support.

If you would like to see more about the Beacon scheme and best practice around the country click here: www.idea-knowledge.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=5096139