About West Cumbria Carers

West Cumbria Carers provides support to carers who look after a family member, relative, friend or neighbor who could not manage without their help.

The organisation provides services to carers in the districts of Allerdale and Copeland in the county of Cumbria.

West Cumbria Carers was founded in 1992 as an unincorporated organisation. In 2000 the organisation was fully constituted as an independent registered charity. In 2007 the organisation became a company limited by guarantee with charitable status. 

Charity No: 1119369
Reg. in England Company No: 6123034

Mission Statement

To support and improve the quality of life of Carers in West Cumbria

Vision

It is the organisation’s vision that unpaid Carers in West Cumbria have full access to services to support them in their caring role, fulfil their own needs as individuals and have services in place to help them move forward when their caring role comes to an end.  West Cumbria Carers aims to gain recognition of the contribution Carers make to society.

Over it’s years of operation the organisation has developed a range of services:

1992 - organisation establishes information and support services for adult carers
2002 - organisation establishes Young Carers Project support services for carers 5 years and over
2009 - organisation establishes Volunteer Project
2011 - organisation establishes Health Project working with GP practices and delivering wellbeing initiatives
2012 - organisation establishes Transitional Carers Project supporting young carers making the transition to adulthood
2013 - organisation establishes Former Carers Project delivering tailored support to help those whose caring role has ended (funding ceased December 2015)
2013 - Carers Support Cumbria Established *
2013 - organisation becomes an inaugural partner in the founding of the Neighbourhood Care Independence Programme
2014 - Carers Support Cumbria bid for and awarded the contract for key carers services with ASC and Health, which enables the protection and maintenance of services to Carers until September 2017
2014 - organisation establishes Lasting Power of Attorney social enterprise

* West Cumbria Carers is part of a consortium with the four other Carers organisations in Cumbria, ensuring cohesive delivery of services countywide and is a partnership member of the Carers Trust. We believe stronger collaboration between Carer services providers will enable provision of a fully integrated county wide service, improve the quality of delivery, improve outcomes for people and communities in our area and importantly help statutory partners to do more with less. 

Values & Principles

West Cumbria Carers is an ethical, caring organisation that recognises the importance of having strong values to adhere to:

• Communication – to help raise the profile of Carers and awareness of issues facing Carers
• Partnership– working in conjunction with third sector and statutory organisations to improve support and services for Carers; maintaining membership of the Carers Trust
• Diversity – to increase and widen the range of services offered, benefiting the varied range of Carers requiring support
• Quality – maintaining the BS: ISO 9001 quality mark and  PQASSO Level 1- Carers Trust Quality Mark to ensure delivery of a quality, beneficial service
• Empowerment – working in a person centered way; empowering Carers to fulfill their own needs and have control of their lives
• Optimism – believing in the strength and abilities of the staff and volunteer team to meet our mission statement and achieve our vision

To help achieve the mission statement and realise the vision, the organisation adheres to business principles:

• Commercial outlook – to flourish in a difficult economic climate the organisation needs to apply business skills and commercial principles and establish a project to self generate funds
• Contracting – explore and realise contracting, partnership and consortium opportunities that advance the interests of the organisation
• Invest in People – ensure business development capability and recognition of the commercial outlook is embedded across the staff team and Board; recognise and develop the skills inherent in the organisation; valuing existing team members and recruiting new people to complement as demand increases
• Plan – review existing and analyse potential service provision for on-going viability; utilise business and financial analytical tools and maintain a risk management strategy
• Focus – retain the support and wellbeing of Carers as the key focus; implement good practice; seek and consider the views of service users and key stakeholders.