A carer is someone of any age who provides unpaid support to family or friends who could not manage without this help. This could be caring for a relative, partner or friend who is ill, frail, disabled or has mental health or substance misuse problems.

Carers may even be juggling paid work with their unpaid caring responsibilities at home. The term carer should not be confused with a care worker, or care assistant, who receives payment for looking after someone.

If you are a carer, your local Crossroads Care scheme can offer you support. Our core service sees a trained care support worker coming into the home to take over the caring responsibilities. Each local scheme is an independent charity, which has its own funding streams and is therefore able to provide additional services according to funding and demand at a local level.

We have a Welsh language policy, which is available on request.

Face to face services: we would establish at the first point of contact the preferred language of a potential service user.  Assessment of service needs will be, wherever possible, conducted in the language of choice.  We will record the language preference, make every effort to ensure that the preference is complied with and make known the language preference to other organisations working in partnership with Bridgend County Crossroads.  Wherever possible, Care Support Staff who have the ability to provide that service in the service user's language of choice will provide personal service delivery.

Contact with office: we will aim to converse in Welsh when a bilingual speaker telephones our office, if they so wish.  However if the person answering the telephone in our office does not speak Welsh, then the caller will be given the choice of a recall with a Welsh speaker, or writing to us in Welsh or continuing the call in English.