Carers, partner agencies and members of the community gathered at The Chai Centre in Burnley during a Carer’s Week event and celebration organised by our Pennine Service User Council (SUCC).
Designed to recognise the vital role that carers play in the community and to honour the incredible dedication and love of those who care for others, the event on Wednesday 11 June - one of the sunniest days of June so far - proved popular and was opened by Burnley Mayor Paul Reynolds.
Chief Nurse Oliver Soriano was on hand to announce and celebrate with attendees our recent national recognition by the Carers Trust Triangle of Care (TOC) accreditation programme. It came the day after the Trust was awarded the two-star award for our work supporting carers. Around 100 of our teams took part in the TOC reaccreditation by self-assessing their carer offer which then went to a peer review.
A range of partners and services were on offer throughout the day to all attendees including health checks like breast screening and blood pressure checks available.
Lancashire Police and Fire and Rescue Service were on hand, alongside our Talking Therapy Team, Carers Link and Lancashire Wildlife Trust who showcased the Chai Centre wildflower garden that many of our carers and volunteers from the community contribute to.
Chief Nurse Oliver Soriano opened the event and said:
“The event was to acknowledge, recognise and champion the work that our carers are both doing and giving to shape the services we are providing and delivering. Our reaccreditation with the Triangle of Care and the two-star award is testament to the work our teams do, listening to the voices of our service users and carers. It’s about collaboration with partners, the more we engage and work together we can always make it better for our service users, their families and carers and the community we serve.”
The Lancashire Telegraph attended and chatted at length with Nurse Gill McKie from our Pennine SUCC, our Carer Experience and Improvement Manager, Jenna Crook and former Trust Governor and carer Hamad Saleem.
Ensuring the voices of our community and carers were heard, the event celebrated and acknowledged the important role of carers as a partner in delivering quality person-centred care and improving support and visibility for carers here in Lancashire and South Cumbria.
