About the Supporting Carers in General Practice programme
The Supporting Carers in General Practice e-learning programme has been developed for primary care professionals, to help them to support people who care for others. It has been developed by the Royal College of General Practitioners, in partnership with the Princess Royal Trust for Carers and with support from The Children’s Society. The programme contains six e-learning sessions:
- Supporting those who provide care for other people
- Identifying carers
- Organising your practice to support carers
- Supporting young carers
- Support for older people and their carers
- Supporting the carers of people with challenging problems
Please spend three minutes looking at the video below from Clare Gerada, previous Chairman of the Royal College of GPs, on five simple ways GPs can make a difference for carers.
GPs can make a difference
Please spend three minutes looking at this message from Clare Gerada, previous Chairman of the Royal College of GPs, on five simple ways GPs can make a difference for carers.
More information
Why supporting carers matters
A carer is someone who provides support to a partner, child, relative, friend or neighbour who could not manage without this help. This could be due to age, physical or mental illness, addiction or disability.
On any practice patient list, one in ten people is a carer, with 22% of those carers performing caring duties for more than 50 hours every week. It is estimated that at least 175,000 carers in the UK are children. Carers underpin our social care system within the UK. With an ageing population, the role of the carer is ever more vital to our society. However, although many carers enjoy their caring role and want to continue caring, there is evidence to suggest that they suffer physical, psychological and social consequences as a result of their caring role.
Carers are more likely to have seen their GP recently than any other support professional. It is vital for GPs within primary care teams to know how to identify and support carers in order to maintain the health of the carer, and to preserve the care giving situation.
Executive group
Dr Julia Moore
National Director, HEE e-Learning for Healthcare
Alan Ryan
National Programme Director, HEE e-Learning for Healthcare
Professor Nigel Sparrow
Clinical Champion and Chair of the Professional Development Board, RCGP
Dr Ben Riley
Medical Director of Curriculum, RCGP
Lyndy Pullan
Head of Professional Programmes, RCGP
Moira Fraser
Director of Policy, The Princess Royal Trust for Carers
Gail Elkington
Briefing Manager, Department of Health
Carole Cochrane
CEO, The Princess Royal Trust for Carers
Project team
Andi Blackmore
Project Manager, HEE e-Learning for HealthcareDr Ben Riley
Clinical Lead, RCGP
Lynne Perry
Instructional Designer, HEE e-Learning for HealthcareDr Chantal Simon
Editor and Lead Author, RCGP
How to access
In order to access any e-LfH programme, you will need an e-LfH account. If you do not have one, then you can register by selecting the Register button below.
If you already have an account with e-LfH, then you can enrol on to the Supporting Carers in General Practice programme by logging in to the e-LfH Hub, selecting My Account > Enrolment and selecting the programme. You can then access the programme immediately in the My e-Learning section.
NHS healthcare staff in England
The Supporting Carers in General Practice programme is also available to NHS healthcare staff via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). Accessing this e-Learning via ESR means that your completions will transfer with you throughout your NHS career.
Further details are available here.