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Flintshire We Care Week 16-22 November 2020

Published: 16/11/2020

Flintshire ‘We Care Week’ is part of a national campaign to raise awareness of Social Care. The campaign is brought to life by thousands of individuals and organisations who come together to provide support for carers, run activities and highlight the vital role carers play in our communities, drawing attention to just how important caring is.

As part of the ‘We Care Week’, Flintshire County Council would like to give you an update on the Flintshire Micro-care Project. The project has been running for just over a year now and is going from strength to strength.

In November 2019, Flintshire County Council introduced Micro-care, which was designed to promote social care as a career option and help develop micro-care enterprises to support vulnerable people across Flintshire.

Micro-care enterprises was a new concept in Flintshire. The aim was to encourage people to become micro-carers who were either: 

• Interested in providing social care services to older people but may have no experience
• Currently working in the care sector but interested in being their own boss
• Actively supporting people in their local communities
• Wanting to do something that support others and makes a difference

Our two Micro-care Development Officers, Robert Loudon and Marianne Lewis have been working with individuals to: 

• Support them develop their business or idea
• Provide information on training, funding and other available support and resources
• Support individuals to develop and deliver a quality service in line with current Welsh Government legislation and regulations
• Providing links to a network of other micro-care providers for mutual support

Over the last year, the development officers have been busy promoting the project and supporting interested parties to start their own businesses and as a result, they have eight new micro-care enterprises currently offering services across Flintshire, with another six people currently working through the Micro-care Programme.

We currently have four Micro-care Enterprises (Just ask Toby, Cartrefle Care, Katherine’s Home Care and Support and TLC (Trelawnyd Living Care and Enabling) working together to create a small consortium to support six customers within a new support living complex.

We have these providers and other such as Opal Home Care, Your Choice @Home service and Sally’s Helping Hands offering both personal care and support services across Flintshire. We also have Myther me and Your Trust Friends delivering wellbeing services, such as supported shopping, cleaning and gardening, just to name a few.

All our current providers are helping people to either remain in their own homes longer or supporting ongoing wellbeing. What is clear is that they are making a difference to residents living in Flintshire, which is excellent news.

The project is continuing until the middle of 2021 and the Micro-care Development Officers are still recruiting, so if you know someone who may be interest or maybe you think you could help support older people in your community, please contact either Marianne or Rob on 01352 702126 or 01352 701461 for an informal chat.