NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB)’s unpaid carers programme has produced a carers hospital discharge toolkit and resources to support NHS trusts to carry out their statutory duty to involve unpaid carers in discharge pathways and to improve unpaid carers’ experiences of discharge through increased identification, support, signposting, and referral.
This toolkit and accompanying resources provide practical guidance for implementing the hospital discharge and community support guidance, information for Integrated Care Systems on virtual wards and the recently released statutory guidance for Discharge from mental health inpatient settings when it comes to supporting unpaid carers, and sit within the wider context of a ‘carer friendly hospital’ approach.
The toolkit has been coproduced with NHS colleagues, voluntary sector carer organisations and people with lived experience, including those from ethnically diverse backgrounds and young carers.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals began to roll out the West Yorkshire Carers Hospital Discharge Toolkit as of 26th February 2024. This will support carers to be more involved in discharge plans for the people they care for. If you are a carer of someone in hospital, visit Carers hospital discharge toolkit to access information which can support you.