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Getting your voice heard in Bristol

Information in this section includes:
local consultations
the carers forum
what is a carer representative?
other ways to get your voice heard

Local consultations
One of the main ways to get your voice heard in Bristol is to comment on formal consultations about health and social care services. When there is a local consultation, we will let you know through these pages. You can then either comment independently, or you can contact us to let us know your views, or you can contact a carer representative.

Carers Forum
In Bristol there is a carers’ forum which meets regularly called Bristol Carers Voice. This is a partnership between organisations like ours, Bristol City Council Health and Social Care, NHS Bristol, and Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Trust.

The Carers’ Support Centre works with carer representatives to input carers’ views and concerns to these meetings.

Bristol Carers Voice ensures that carers’ issues are kept on the agenda for statutory agencies. The group reviews changes to local adult services, and inputs carers’ views on all aspects of social care and health. The group also oversees the development of the Bristol Carers Strategy.

If you are a parent carer, and want to get your views heard, see Bristol Parent Carers website.
If you are a young carer, and want to get your views heard, see Young Carers Voice.

What is a carer representative?
A carer representative is...
Some of the things that carer representatives do are...
You can contact a carer representative at any time...You may want to talk to a carer representative about concerns you have with a current service or your caring role.

You may even consider becoming a carer representative yourself. You don’t need any special qualifications for this. You will be a carer who knows about the daily pressures that all carers face. And you will need to be passionate about improving the quality of life for carers. If you’d like to talk informally about the role of a carer representative, please do get in touch.

Other ways to get your voice heard
We regularly invite carers to join small groups working in partnership with health and social care services. Examples of this are...

Would you be willing to write a letter or make a comment to a local paper? You might not have enough time or energy to get involved in consultations or working groups, but that doesn’t mean you don’t feel passionately about improving services for carers and the people they care for. We sometimes ask carers to write letters or to speak to the local media, on specific issues. If you think you could do this, let us know.

Contact us
Contact us if you would like to talk to us about anything on these pages or you would like to talk to a carer representative.
Telephone:   0117 958 9989      
Email: carersvoice@carerssupportcentre.org.uk