The Government has today published its Unpaid Carers Action Plan, setting out a cross-government programme of work to better recognise unpaid carers, improve access to information and support, and help carers remain connected to work, education and their communities.
The Action Plan focuses on three priorities – Recognise, Refer and Reach – and includes measures to improve the identification of unpaid carers across public services, strengthen signposting to support, and build on wider work to improve employment rights for carers.
Responding to the publication of the Government’s Unpaid Carers Action Plan, CSA Co-chairs Caroline Abrahams, Emily Holzhausen and Jackie O’Sullivan said:
“The Government’s new cross-government Action Plan is an important recognition of the vital role millions of unpaid carers play every day. Improving how carers are identified, referred to support and helped to remain connected to work and their communities are all important and necessary steps.
“But recognition alone is not enough. Every day, millions of unpaid carers continue to fill the gaps left by an overstretched social care system, often at significant cost to their own health, finances and wellbeing. Too many are forced to reduce their hours at work, give up employment altogether or reach breaking point because the care and support their loved one needs simply isn’t available.
“The commitments to improve the identification of carers across public services and strengthen employment rights have the potential to make a real difference. However, they must sit alongside wider reform of adult social care. Unpaid carers cannot continue to shoulder ever greater responsibilities because formal care is unavailable, delayed or simply doesn’t exist.
“As Baroness Casey has recognised, unpaid carers are too often left acting as unpaid project managers of a fragmented system. The Casey Commission provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity to change that. We urge the Government to build on today’s announcement by delivering a sustainable, long-term settlement for adult social care that ensures carers receive the practical support, respite and services they need.
“Most of us will either need care ourselves or care for someone we love during our lifetime. Supporting unpaid carers is not only the right thing to do – it is essential to building a fair, sustainable care system for the future.”
