Coming Together

Following a successful joint tender to provide enhanced information and advice services to carers and their families in Medway, the Trustees of Medway Carers Centre and Carers First are delighted to announce the merger of the two organisations.

The merger will be achieved, subject to Charity Commission approval, by Medway Carers Centre becoming a subsidiary of Carers FIRST. In order that the service develops to meet local needs, Medway Carers Centre will retain its local identity and a separate board.

Commenting on the merger Rachael Littlewood, Chairman Medway Carers Centre said, "Exciting days are ahead!  After many discussions the Medway Carers’ centre is to become part of the larger organisation Carers’ First which is based at Tonbridge. We   will keep our own identity but will have the expertise of a larger organisation and they too will have the benefit of our experience here in Medway.

There are still many legal matters to sort out but we hope this new partnership will be up and running by the summer. All the Medway centre’s trustees are excited about this new move forward and we can all look forward to the future together."

Alison Cook, Chairman Carers FIRST commented, “Full steam ahead as Carers FIRST and Medway Carers Centre embark on a joint agreement to merge in order to provide an even better service for carers.

We believe that by enlarging our organization and pooling our expertise we can not only raise our profile on behalf of carers with the public and statutory organisations but also secure the necessary funding to increase the breadth and scope of the services we can offer.

This is an exciting new chapter for Carers FIRST and the Medway Carers Centre and trustee’s are looking forward to a bright future.”

Bobbie Taiano will continue to manage Medway Carers Centre, reporting to Ron Alexander, Carers First Chief Executive. Bobbie and Ron added, “We have enjoyed working together in making the successful tender and we look forward to continuing to do as together with the team we work to improve the support for carers.”

  Medway Carers Service

Improving Carers Support in Medway

In setting out the requirements for the new service Medway Council was looking for a number of improvements and further developments. These improvements came out consultations with carers. In responding to the tender we made a number of commitments, these included:

The Centre itself will undergo refurbishment. We will create a more inviting environment for carers on the downstairs floor by making use of the shop window presence and by creating a café style area for support groups, drop in and training area. There will be computer access for carers looking to search information or improve their IT skills. Upstairs will be improved to allow more effective working by staff and to improve their working conditions. We are planning to hold a “Carers Week” event to celebrate the opening of the refurbished centre. More in our next newsletter.

We will further improve accessibility of the service by being available an additional 4 hours over evenings and Saturdays. We will increase our presence by increasing our “outreach” support for carers and young carers across Medway. We will continue to improve the quality of information we provide and in the formats we provide it.

Additional support groups and carer training sessions will be offered for carers and young carers and we will continue to develop activities and events that provide a well deserved break from their caring roles.

One to one support will be further enhanced by providing a counselling service and by the availability of our staff in “outreach” locations.

We will work with other statutory and voluntary organisations supporting carers and their families. We will work with Crossroads, who were awarded the contract for respite services, so that together carers in Medway will benefit as much as possible from all of the services available locally.

A key development is to establish a Carers Partnership Board, comprising carers and the key statutory and voluntary organisations supporting them. To make the Board effective we will be seeking to encourage representation that reflects fairly the needs of all carers.