Pears Foundation provides £1 million funding for unpaid carers across the UK
Carers Trust is delighted to announce it is to receive £1 million in funding over the next two years from the Pears Foundation.
The funding will significantly boost Carers Trust’s direct grant programmes which supports the immediate needs of unpaid carers across the UK. These grants are delivered to unpaid carers through a network of 140 local carers charities, co-ordinated by Carers Trust.
Specifically, the grants will offer unpaid carers the ability to address essential needs which would otherwise be unaffordable, be that a much-needed break from the pressures of caring, help to buy household objects essential to their caring role - like new beds, cookers and washing machines – or transport costs to visit the person they are caring for in hospital.
The grants programme complements Carers Trust’s other services which aim to improve recognition and support for people experiencing the daily pressures of providing unpaid care for family members affected by long-term illness, disability, mental health problems or addiction issues.
The sum announced today by Pears Foundation represents a doubling of its annual support for unpaid carers across the UK. It also builds upon the Foundation’s long-standing and much valued relationship with Carers Trust, extending back to 2002. In that time the Foundation has committed essential core revenue funding as well as support for projects for young carers and a mentoring programme for Chief Executives of local carers’ charities.
Welcoming the latest commitment of £1 million to boost Carers Trust’s support for unpaid carers, former CEO of Carers Trust, Giles Meyer, said:
“This incredibly generous grant from Pears Foundation will have a huge and immediate impact on the lives of thousands of unpaid carers across the UK. Many such carers have sacrificed so much, giving up their paid work to provide the care their family members so desperately need. So we are thrilled that the Foundation’s generosity will help us to provide real and immediate support to where it is needed most - carers experiencing real hardship as they struggle to buy the sort of household items like beds or washing machines that most of us take for granted, but without which their ability to care is infinitely more difficult.
“The funding could not be more timely too, as central funding for essential local services continues to be pared back to the bone. On behalf of all the carers we work with through our network, I’d like to thank Pears Foundation for this donation. We look forward to reporting back to the Foundation in due course on how it has made a real and tangible difference to some of society’s most valuable, yet vulnerable, people.”
Sir Trevor Pears CMG, Executive Chair of Pears Foundation, said: "Carers are the backbone of society, working tirelessly to support loved ones and family members in need. Too often, carers themselves are unrecognised and in need of assistance. We are proud to partner with Carers Trust to improve the wellbeing of carers throughout the UK, and delighted to offer this additional boost in the form of direct grants to carers and their families”.
