New organisation to support carers in Bury

A new provider will take over the Bury Carers Service on 1 June to provide help to hundreds of local carers.

The new Bury Carers Hub will be provided by n-compass. The aim of the service is to improve the health and wellbeing of carers and their families, with a strong partnership approach and providing early intervention.

The change follows a 12-week consultation with carers in September 2018. Bury Council and the CCG wanted to understand from carers and those supporting them what services and support carers feel there should be in Bury.

This was followed by a number of feedback sessions and workshops with carers and service providers, an online carers forum, and feedback on what carers wanted to access online via the Bury Directory. The service contract then went out to tender in December 2019.

Established in 1999, n-compass is a not-for profit organisation which works to improve the lives of vulnerable people across the region. n-compass has more than 20 years’ experience of delivering services to carers and currently provides carers services in Lancashire, Cheshire East, and Rochdale.

As well as delivering traditional carers support which includes a face-to-face offer, n-compass has developed bespoke online services for carers including virtual carer forums and meetings, all of which will be available to carers of Bury. n-compass also provide many volunteer opportunities with more than 100 volunteers supporting their delivery. They will be developing the Friends of Bury Carers initiative where volunteers can take up a variety of roles to extend the reach of the service.

n-compass has also been awarded 3 stars by the Best Companies organisation and achieved 13th position in The Sunday Times Top 100 Not-for-Profit Organisations to Work For.

Councillor Andrea Simpson, cabinet member for health and wellbeing, said: “More than 1,200 people are registered with Bury Carers Service and they do a magnificent job in looking after some of the most vulnerable people in our borough.

“This new service has, quite rightly, been developed after extensive consultation with carers themselves, and I want to thank them for taking the time to share their views, concerns and ideas which has enabled us to build a new model for carers.”

Teresa Jennings, chief executive of n-compass, said: “We are thrilled to be providing this important service to the carers of Bury. We can’t wait to get started! As a person-centred charity we will be listening and adapting the service to support more carers than ever through our innovative ways of working”.

The current service provider, Gaddum, will continue to support carers until 1 June and work with n-compass to ensure the successful transition of the service. This will include contacting all carers registered with Bury Carers Services.

Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, support is currently being provided remotely, over the phone, by email and texts, or face-to-face through video calling.

The office phone line: 0161 834 6069 (option 2 for Carers, followed by option 1 for Bury Carers) is still open and being answered between 9am and 4.30pm. At other times, callers are asked to leave a message, and someone will respond by the next working day. Alternatively, email bury.carers@gaddum.org.uk.

ENDS

Press release issued: 22 April 2020.