Identifying and supporting hidden carers

Hidden carers are people that despite having a caring responsibility do not recognise themselves as carers. Encouraged by the results of a successful trial earlier this year where Sainsbury’s stores in the South West worked with the Torbay Care Trust to identify hidden carers, Sainsbury’s has agreed to partner with the Department of Health to roll out a similar scheme nationwide.

Sainsbury’s identified hidden carers by first looking at research which showed that a typical supermarket has hundreds of customers each week who purchase groceries separately for others while doing their own shopping, a practice common amongst carers. Sainsbury’s colleagues were then coached by the Trust to identify these customers and to ask them whether they had caring responsibilities. If a customer indicated that they did have caring responsibilities they were pointed towards trained members of Torbay Care Trust team who were based in the store.

Pharmacists working in these stores also received coaching to help identify customers that provide care for ill or disabled loved ones. If a customer collected a prescription on behalf of another person the pharmacist would simply direct them to the Torbay Carers staff again based in-store. Carers often collect prescriptions for those they have responsibility for with up to 85 per cent of prescriptions nationwide not collected by the patient.

These two simple initiatives led to over 140 people signing up to the Torbay Carers Register in a couple of months, around double the number of new joiners the Register would normally expect. Signing up to the Register meant that the carers could gain access to the help, support and expert advice they need from local carers’ organisations. By expanding the initiative it is hoped that Sainsbury’s and the Department of Health will be able to identify many more hidden carers.

The UK has 6.4 million carers and research from Carers UK shows that each carer saves the state on average £18,473 each year.