Background The Carers Consortium is a collaboration of Kirklees carers services, which include:

• Carers Trust – a not–for–profit charity supporting carers. Offering carers breaks and homecare support;

• Carers Count – aims to promote the wellbeing of carers and support them in their caring role;

• Barnardo’s– offering support for young carers aged 8–18 who support an individual affected by a physical or mental health difficulty;

• Kirklees Council;

• Kirkwood Hospice.

The individual organisations identified that there were a wide range of services in Kirklees to support carers and that there seemed to be a degree of overlap in carers’ services making it confusing and complex to navigate. It was also felt that key stakeholders - including clinical staff across primary, secondary and community care - might not be aware of local services and where to signpost carers, and so a collaborative approach might support wider awareness raising and improve access to services.

As a hospice, we are extremely pleased to be recognised as a key partner in supporting carers in Kirklees. Through our involvement in the consortium, we now have the opportunity as a collective to share good practice, reduce the number of referrals that a carer would need to make and share knowledge of each others’ services and areas of expertise. This integration will benefit carers in Kirklees.

A feature of our partnership working has been the development and publication of joint promotional materials, including an easy-to-read leaflet for carers detailing local support services.

This has also been enhanced through joint social media activity, with a Twitter and Facebook account created along with the local #KirkleesThinkCarers.

Future plans include further collaboration on carers’ issues, exploring service development and integration, development of new resources and through the medium of a shared social media account, keeping carers updated about the services that we all offer and a central point of contact.