Cambridgeshire Carers Partnership Board

Terms of Reference

* “A carer is anyone who cares, unpaid, for a friend or family member who due to
illness, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction cannot cope without their
support.” (Carers Trust website https://carers.org/what-carer)

Purpose
The role of the Cambridgeshire Carers Partnership Board is to develop, co-ordinate
and monitor services and support delivered to carers across Cambridgeshire.

Reporting/Governance
The Chair of the Board will attend meetings of the Adult Social Care Forum (ASCF)
to raise awareness of issues and influence strategic decision-making. The Chair will
in turn report back to the Board.
The Board will feedback on, and report to its members, on any local initiatives
affecting carers.
In addition, the Pinpoint representative on the Carers Partnership Board will feed any
issues relating to carers of children and young people 0-25 to the CCC Special
Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Board, who will address and feedback.

Tasks
1. To monitor how current and newly introduced legislation affects local service
delivery.
2. To ensure the local Carers Strategy is reviewed annually and continues to be
carried out.
3. Members to act as a voice for carers outside the Partnership Board
framework to ensure carers’ views are communicated widely.
4. To ensure the Cambridgeshire County Council’s Working Together
commitment is adhered to.
5. To ensure under-served groups are considered.
6. To monitor, assess and give feedback on, the value and effectiveness of
commissioned services

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 7. To ensure feedback is provided to carers on the outcomes of their
involvement in the work of the Partnership Board.
8. To work closely with the Cambridgeshire County Council Partnership Boards
and other participation bodies (e.g. SUN Network) to identify common areas
of concern, or need for carers and their cared for; and then to seek solutions
that resolve the issues.

Board members
The Board will operate a 2-tier membership comprising:
1. Full members who attend and participate fully in Board meetings
2. Corresponding members who do not attend (all) meetings but receive all
information and minutes and are invited to participate and contribute via
email/ telephone etc.

The Board will be made up of the following:

 50% (of Full members) will be Carer Representatives
 Representatives from appropriate voluntary and community organisations
(VCS)
 Appropriate Statutory Services representatives
Additionally, a member of the Adults Committee will be nominated to, and expected
to, attend.
Furthermore, the membership of the Board should aim to be representative of the
diversity of Cambridgeshire.
Members will remain on the board for a period of 1-3 years except under exceptional
circumstances and at the discretion on the board.
Chair
The Chair and the Vice Chair will be Carers and they will be elected by the Board.
The role of the Chair is to facilitate the smooth running of meetings and to ensure
that the views of all members are duly considered. Elected Chairs will remain in
office for two years and may be elected for a further one year. In addition the Chair
will be available to attend meetings with senior Council executives (e.g. Adult Social
Care Forum). Except in exceptional circumstances, two meetings notice of
resignation from the position of Chair or Vice-Chair is required.

Vice Chair
The Vice Chair will provide support and back up to Chair and will take on the role
and responsibilities above in the absence of the Chair.

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Carer representatives
 Individual carers are invited to attend as ‘Experts by Experience’. These may
be carers of children, young people and/or adults. Carers bring their own
awareness of relevant issues and may have links with local Carer Networks,
but are not invited as formal representatives of their service area or locality
but are representative of the carer role.
 Representatives from organisations that work with carers and represent their
views are also invited to attend as Carer Representatives
The Board values all Carer experience but acknowledges that appropriate and timely
experience is essential to the effective decision making of the Board. Therefore
where a substantive Carer has ceased their Caring role for whatever reason, the
Carer may retain their substantive position on the Board for a period of up to 12
months following the date when their caring role ceased, or longer, at the discretion
of the Board.
Voluntary and Community Sector and Statutory Service Representatives
Are expected to attend all Full Board meetings and participate fully. If a member is
unable to attend a meeting they should send notification at the earliest opportunity
and if possible arrange for a substitute to attend on their behalf. These members are
required to take responsibility to use their networks and links to carers to support
voice and consultation activities when required.
Council representatives will be expected to follow up on issues and queries raised
and provide feedback to the Board.
Prospective new members
Any member can introduce a prospective new member by putting them in touch with
the Chair or Cambridgeshire Alliance. They will then meet with the Chair and CAIL’s
Development Officer who will give an overview of the work of the Board.

Frequency and agendas

 Meetings will be held every two months with a carers pre-meeting before the
main meeting so that individual carers representatives can discuss current
issues.
 Extraordinary meetings can be called by any of the group members, in
consultation with all other members with agreement by the Chair.
 The Agenda is usually set well in advance. Any member of the group may
suggest future agenda items under Any Other Business.

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 Agendas will be sent out to members at least 1 week before each meeting; these
will also be available on the Cambridgeshire Alliance website.

Referral onwards
 Where relevant issues are raised at the Board which require detailed scrutiny,
a Task and Finish group will be convened. This group will feed back to the
Board on completion of the task.
 Where individual issues arise, which would more appropriately referred on for
individual resolution through the Complaints Process, or through presentation
at another specialist forum, members will be encouraged and supported to do
so. Such issues will be treated as confidential by all board members unless
there are safeguarding concerns.

Communications
Minutes and other relevant information will be publicised on CAIL’s website on which
there is a dedicated Carers Partnership Board page. On joining the Carers
Partnership Board members will be asked how they wish to receive all
communications.

Lifespan of the group

 The Terms of Reference of the Partnership Board will be reviewed on a three
yearly basis.
 Any developments or changes to the Partnership Board will be reflected in the
amended Terms of Reference.

These Terms of Reference were adopted by the Board on 28 November 2017.

They will be due for review by December 2020.