Carer Centre
Southwark Council has gathered the views of its residents to help design a new Carer Centre for unpaid carers living in Southwark.
Phases
Lived experience representatives on a working group
In April 2025, interested carers were invited to apply to be part of a working group, alongside Adult Social Care practitioners and health care professionals who work closely with carers. Almost 20 carers expressed interest in being part of the working group, and after a short application and discussion process, four carers were successful. These four carers have a range of lived experience supporting parents, children, or siblings with different caring needs.
Between May and August 2025, the working group met regularly to review the survey and focus group findings and to develop a service model for the new Carer Centre.
The service design process is now complete, and we can share the seven key elements of the service:
1. This service will be the primary point of contact for all carers in the borough who need support from social services. The organisation will be able to help carers to access social services.
2. The service will offer time-limited 1:1 support to carers, e.g. information and advice.
3. The service will facilitate peer support groups for carers.
4. The service will run activities and events. Some of these will focus on helping carers relax and have fun, and others will focus on practical and educational support around caring.
5. The service will work with the council’s Young Carer service to support young carers reaching the age of 18 and transitioning to adult services.
6. The service will actively try to identify new carers in the borough and offer support.
7. The service will offer regular communications with carers in the borough regarding activities, events, and key information relevant to carers.
The Working Group also chose to rename the Carer Centre “the Carer Service”, ensuring that the emphasis is on the services provided rather than the physical location.