The purpose of this report is to seek approval for the council to directly provide a new assessment and support service for young carers.

The joint carers strategy 2017 – 2021 and associated commissioning intentions were approved by Cabinet in July 2017. That decision noted that a panel or focus group of carers, including young carers, would contribute to the final design of new services to be commissioned and participate in the procurement process. That work has concluded that a service for young carers should be commissioned separately from wider carers provision. There are numerous challenges currently to commissioning such a service for young carers to be delivered by an independent provider and it is therefore proposed that the council instead deliver it directly through its children’s wellbeing directorate. This report seeks to approve the proposed new in-house service for young carers.