Find out more about Crossroads:
Who are we?
Crossroads Care is a member of the National Crossroads Association which was founded in Rugby in 1974.
We are a registered charity providing services to carers in Salford, Trafford, Stockport, Bolton, Rochdale and Oldham by looking after disabled children, young people and adults in their own homes whilst the carer takes a break.
Our governance structure
Crossroads Care is governed by a Board of Trustees which sets the strategic direction for the organisation and oversees our work. Our Trustee Board is currently made up of board officers, board members, Local Authority representatives and Crossroads service users themselves.
Our Trustee Board is supported by one key sub-committee, the Finance and Risk Management committee. Trustees from the main board chair the sub-committee and a selection of Crossroads staff also sits on the committee
Our staff structure
Day to day management of carer support services is delegated to a Care Manager. The Care Manager is support by Senior Carer Support Workers and our front line services provided to carers are provided by Carer Support Workers.
What do we provide?
The overall principle of the Crossroads Care scheme is to provide practical and emotional support to carers who are responsible for the care of children, young adults, adults or older people at home, who have a physical/sensory disability, learning difficulty or who are chronically ill and have life limiting illnesses.
Crossroads support is individually tailored to meet the needs of each family and is totally flexible and adaptable around their needs, rather than families having to fit their needs around the availability of the service. Individual care plans are agreed between Crossroads, the carer and the person with care needs.
Carers are able to decide for themselves what help and support they need. Crossroads provides a trained Carer Support Worker to a family and they will provide whatever support is required to relieve the carer of their caring responsibilities which can range from emotional support through to more specialised tasks such as specialist feeding and administering medication.
Crossroads enables carers to continue caring for as long as they wish or are able to do so. Our sensitive and flexible approach is designed to help the carer and the cared for feel comfortable and in control of the services they receive from Crossroads. This service works closely with and alongside existing health, social services and voluntary services, thereby providing an additional element in a total care package for the individual family.
Our services to carers are provided 365 days a year and each service area has its own 24 hour on-call service. We also work in partnership with our authority partners to deliver a round-the-clock emergency carers response service.
Who is a carer?
A carer may be a friend, neighbour or relative who is providing support to someone else, either within the same household or living elsewhere, who would otherwise not be able to manage without our help.
A carer’s life is often restricted by the need to be on call 24 hours a day because the person they look after cannot be safely left alone for long periods. Carers are often under a great deal of physical and emotional strain through the demanding work of caring for someone heavily dependent upon them. They might be trying to hold down a paid job as well, and have other family commitments.
How are we funded?
We receive some funding from the Local Authority which is used to provide breaks and other services to help carers in their caring role. However, this funding alone is not enough to provide a service to all carers so we also rely on voluntary donations and fundraising to provide more breaks for more carers. We also provide carer respite services to carers who use Direct Payments and Individualised Budgets and we also provide services under PCT Continuing Care as well as a small amount of privately funded services.
What other services do we provide?
The majority of our work is focused on providing respite services to carers. However, aside from this we also facilitate a number of different projects which involve groups of carers getting together such as a learning disability drop-in group and we partner with other agencies representing carers such as the Parkinson’s Society, Macmillan Cancer Support and Barnardo’s to deliver carer respite services to specific client groups.
