Triangle of Care

Our Trust is now a member of the Triangle of Care. This means that we are committed to collaboration and partnership with carers in people’s journey through our services.

As part of our commitment to keeping carers and families of people who use our services informed and supported, we are introducing the Triangle of Care model in all services across our Trust.

The Triangle of Care means that carers are included at all levels of care, giving equity in the service user journey. Using the Triangle of Care will help promote safety, support recovery and improve wellbeing.

There are six key standards which make up the Triangle of Care:

1. Carers and the essential role they play are identified at first contact or as soon as possible thereafter.
2. Staff are ‘carer aware’ and trained in carer engagement strategies.
3. Policy and practice protocols about confidentiality and sharing information are in place.
4. Defined post(s) responsible for carers are in place.
5. A carer introduction to the service and staff is available, with a relevant range of information across the care pathway.
6. A range of carer support services are available.

If you are a carer you should be involved in the service user journey. Your involvement is important because they are:

• Usually the first person to be aware of a developing crisis, and / or notice important early warning signs.
• Partners in care who usually want to be involved and informed throughout assessment, treatment and aftercare planning of the person they care for, especially in periods of crisis.
• Important in helping to identify any risk factors.
• A vital part of a person’s treatment who can be involved at all stages of care.
• Usually the person who has first responsibility for care when professionals are not there and are often faced with providing care to service users who are acutely unwell.
• Equal partners in care.

You can watch a short video below to find out what the Triangle of Care means:

Our progress on the Triangle of Care journey

Thank you very much to carers who have given their evaluations as part of our Triangle of Care journey. We are please to say we have reached a milestone in our Triangle of Care journey with 100% of our inpatient wards and crisis teams having completed their self-assessments.

The self-assessment is a vital way to look at how each service currently supports carers. It also helps us see how we can support our teams and services to improve the experience of carers and ensure they are an equitable part of the service user journey.

Following the self-assessment, each service was given a Red-Amber-Green (RAG) rating across each of the Triangle of Care standards (which are listed above).

We will be working with each service who has completed a self-assessment to share good practice and support them further on their Triangle of Care journey. We are also putting together a submission report which will externally review how we are getting on with giving carers equity in the service user journey.

We will publish more information on our website as we hear more from our external review.

Triangle of Care annual report 2025

Read about our progress so far in our 2025 annual report.

Further information

If you have questions about the Triangle of Care and being involved in the service user journey as a carer, please speak to the healthcare team of the person you care for, or contact Gillian Cowell, carers lead – gillian.cowell1@swyt.nhs.uk.

Page last updated on: 2^nd July 2025