Celebrating Carers Week
Carers Week is an annual campaign raising awareness of caring, the challenges carers face and recognising the contribution they make to families and communities.
This year the awareness week runs from 9 to 15 June 2025 and the theme is 'Caring About Equality', which aims to highlight the need for an equal society where carers are truly valued, recognised and supported. The week provides an opportunity for us as an organisation to share how we listen, communicate, involve and offer support to carers and their families.
For Carers Week this year, we're sharing Jackie's story, a carer who shares about her life as a carer for her dad, what that involves and the support she has. We're also sharing more about our Culture of Care programme and our plans for involving carers, as well as our partnership work with the Joint Carers Strategy, and PCREF (Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework) and why it is important. You can also find information on support for carers here .
Jackie's carer story
Jackie is a carer for her 93 old dad and we recently spoke to her about what that involves day to day, how it has impacted her life and the rewarding moments it brings. She also speaks about why it is so important to involve carers with patient care.
Culture of Care programme
Culture of Care is one of the largest quality improvement projects ever undertaken by NHS England, a national project that started just over 18 months ago, which Nottinghamshire Healthcare signed up to, to take part in. The project is built around 12 co-produced standards of care to improve patient experiences and outcomes and those of the staff that work alongside our patients.
As well as the 12 standards, it is also built on three pillars, those being, Anti Racism, Trauma Informed and Autism Aware.
Currently within the Trust's Adult Mental Health inpatient services we are trialling the project on four wards, two at Highbury (Redwood and Rowan 2) and two at Sherwood Oaks, (Elm, and Fir). You can read more about
The Culture of Care programme is really proactive in involving carers nationally, as it is recognised how important working with carers is, and this is something we are committed to within the Trust. You can read more about how we are involving carers as part of the Culture of Care programme here.
Joint Carers Strategy
A Joint Carers strategy was developed with our partners, to support carers across the whole health and social care system in Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County.
The aims and objectives of the joint Carers Strategy details how we plan to better support and meet the needs of all carers, by working together to make best use of our joint resources. Its basis focuses on building on and refining those things that have worked well for many carers but also focuses on our aspirations for the future.
We know that working together will improve the lives of both carers and those they care for, by improving the way carers are identified and supported, by making the best use of our joint resources and ensuring consistency of services across the city and county.
PCREF (Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework)
NHS England's first ever anti-racism framework: the Patient and carer race equality framework (PCREF) , is for all NHS mental health trusts and mental health service providers to embed across England. This mandatory framework will support trusts and providers on their journeys to becoming actively anti-racist organisations by ensuring that they are responsible for co-producing and implementing concrete actions to reduce racial inequalities within their services.
At our Carers, Families and Friends Event that we held in February we were very lucky to have Jackie Dyer MBE, speak at our event. Jackie is currently the Mental Health Equalities advisor for NHS England. She spoke about the importance of PCREF and you can watch a video here: Dr Jacqui Dyer MBE - PCREF Framework . More about the event can be found on our Event pages .
The Trust is developing a plan and will be looking to involve racialised, ethnically and culturally diverse communities. Further details and information about how to get involved can be found on our website.
Join our Patient and Carer Reference Group
The Patient, Carer and Family Reference Group (PCFRG) has been established by the Integrated Improvement Board (IIPB) to provide advice on and oversee the Trust's progress on the Integrated Improvement Plan (IIP) from a patient, carer and family perspective.
The group will provide meaningful engagement and involvement with the Trust to influence service improvements and transformation. The group is responsible for:
Offering advice/ideas/insight around the Integrated Improvement Plan and how we strengthen patient/carer voice and participation.
We're looking for people who have had experience of using our services, or those who are a carer or family member of someone that has to get involved. Find out more here.
Events
Let's Talk, Let's Listen and Let's Learn Together Event
On Thursday 13 February 2025, Nottinghamshire Healthcare hosted an event for the carers, families, and friends of our patients and service users. With 130 attendees, the event fostered an open and candid discussion about what meaningful engagement and involvement from carers and families should look like, ensuring it's a positive experience for everyone. Speakers included Diane Hull, Chief Nurse at the Trust, who discussed the Trust's efforts to reset and collaborate more effectively with carers and families, Jackie Danby, a carer and service user, who shared her personal experiences with our services, and Anna Oliver, Lead Commissioner for Nottinghamshire County Council, who spearheaded the co-production of the Joint Carers Strategy for Nottinghamshire. You can watch videos of the speakers here.
At the event we asked carers and families to share what matters most to them. Their insights were invaluable, and we've used their feedback to develop six key commitments, which you can find more about here: What's next | Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust #CarersWeek.
Bassetlaw Carers Event
The Bassetlaw Carer Support Group is holding an event on 10 June, 12.30pm to 2.30pm for Carers from the Bassetlaw area who care for someone with a mental health condition. The group offers information, support, social opportunities and a chance to meet others with a similar experience, to share that greater understanding and knowledge of being a carer. Find out more and please share with anyone for who this may be relevant. Please email bassetlawcarerssupportgroup@nottshc.nhs.uk for further information.
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