ELDERLY, disabled and seriously ill loved ones will get more help and support under planned county council contracts to help Surrey’s “unsung heroes”.

The county council and Surrey’s six clinical commissioning groups are preparing to sign contracts to give carers’ breaks to recharge their batteries and provide help with their physical and emotional needs.

Doing a deal with Crossroads Care, which will see their staff go into homes to care for loved ones, will enable an extra 500 days of breaks to be provided.

Action for Carers Surrey has agreed to increase the number of people given support to 20,000 a year as part of its contract as well as operate extended hours stretching into the evening and on Saturdays.

The move aims to ensure families stay together in their own home for longer at a time when rising demand for services such as adult social care mean the council is looking to bridge a £30 million funding gap next year.

It has been estimated the authority would need to spend the equivalent of up to £10m extra annually on providing more expensive types of support in care or nursing homes over the four years the contracts could last – the initial deals will run for two years with options to extend them.

Mel Few, Surrey County Council’s Cabinet member for adult social care, said: “Carers play an invaluable role and make such an enormous contribution in helping people stay in their homes, which is what they want. That is why it is vital we do as much as we can to help them.

“Without Surrey’s unsung heroes we would face the prospect of spending up to £10m more a year on care for their loved ones at a time when growing demand for services for older and disabled people is putting our finances under severe strain.”

The news that Surrey is resorting to help from a charity to help run its essential adult social care services has received only a cautious welcome from the Labour opposition at County Hall.

Surrey’s Labour leader Robert Evans, said that the Conservative Government’s under-funding of Surrey seems to have forced the county to go running, cap-in-hand, to charities such as Crossroads Care to cover their own incompetence:

“Crossroads and the army of voluntary carers do a terrific job in supporting our older residents but it has come to something when a wealthy place like Surrey can’t support people who have spent a lifetime paying in for public services.”

Mr Evans argued that council chiefs have their priorities wrong and that a little while ago they were giving themselves allowances rises of more than 50 per cent and increasing the number of councillors in receipt of bonuses.

He continues: “It’s small wonder they can’t afford to pay for these services when they are pocketing so much for themselves.

“A recent report by Leonard Cheshire Disability showed Surrey rejecting over three quarters of sometimes, desperate pleas for help. Looking after our older people is a key responsibility for the county council, but at the moment they seem unable to do so without resorting to voluntary help and charities.

“With Chancellor Philip Hammond as one of Surrey’s 11 Tory MPs it doesn’t say much for the ruling Conservative group’s link with the Treasury purse and their powers of persuasion if this is what happens.

“The public need to wake up and realise that this is the true effect of Tory austerity measures and a failing administration at County Hall.’

“By contrast, Labour believes in a properly funded and well-supported state social care service. We will take away the worry and stress that these real concerns about social care cause our older residents.”