Carers at the heart of 21st?century families and communities

“A caring system on your side. A life of your own.”

Foreword by Secretaries of State

Every day 6,000 people take on new caring responsibilities, performing a crucial role in families and in their wider communities, by providing support, care and help with day-to-day tasks to those who otherwise would struggle to manage alone.

There is no fixed group that needs care. support might be needed by relatives, friends, children, older people, people with disabilities or those who are ill. Caring has never been a sectional interest – everyone has the potential to become a carer, and it is likely that in the future more and more of us will. the number of people aged over 85 – the age group most likely to need care – is set to double over the next 20 years, affecting many more families. traditionally caring has been seen as women’s work – and 70 per cent of it is still done by women but as our culture continues to change so too will this figure. nine per cent of men now have caring responsibilities compared with 11 per cent of women. Caring is increasingly part of all our lives.

People who care do so because they want to help the people they care about, but often it means they end up juggling the support they give with other responsibilities, in a difficult balancing act. for many carers, looking after their own health, combining caring with work, getting access to training or simply having time to take a break and go away for a weekend can be a major challenge. People who provide a lot of care tend to have lower incomes, poorer health, and are less likely to be in work than their counterparts.

If carers are to have the same opportunities as everyone else in society, and to be able to have a life outside caring, we need to improve support and recognition for what they do. that means improving health and social care support, ensuring that carers are able to access education and leisure opportunities, and making sure that people with caring responsibilities have the chance to work flexibly so as to combine work with their caring roles. for the many children and young people who support parents or other family members it means making sure that they are not providing unreasonable levels of care, and that they have the support they need to learn, to develop and to thrive.

This strategy sets out the action we plan to take, working with partners and, building on the progress made by our first ever carers’ strategy, Caring for Carers, published in 1999.

Responding to the needs of the growing numbers of people who care is one of the major challenges we face as a result of the demographic changes underway today. We must work together using the 10-year framework set out in this strategy to ensure that this challenge is met.

Read the full document by following this link