Allegra Lynch on the power of support: Restoring dreams for Camden’s carers

Caption: Allegra Lynch featured

Allegra Lynch, CEO of Camden Carers, reflects on her 15-year leadership journey and highlights the organisation’s partnership with Phoenix Group and Carers Trust. This collaboration is already making a meaningful impact by providing unpaid carers with essential support, skills training, and access to flexible employment opportunities.

1. Could you tell us about your role and background?

I’m the CEO at Camden Carers. I work alongside a dedicated board of trustees, colleagues, volunteers and carers to ensure that carers across Camden get vital support through a range of services.  I have been here for just over 15 years and I still really enjoy the work.

2. What drives you to transform the lives of carers?

Every one of us can face challenges at different times in our lives and having support to get you through those times is so important.

Identifying as a carer can be challenging, we all have different views on what that is or what it involves. Carers often say it’s just something they do, looking after their mum, dad, a friend or child. I’ve been a carer a couple of times in my life. Caring comes to some naturally but that doesn’t mean it’s without impact.

Ensuring that carers have time and space for themselves and someone to listen to them is so important. Caring impacts people from all backgrounds and unites us all.

3. Camden Carers has received extensive recognition and awards for your work transforming the lives of unpaid carers. Can you tell us about why employability and upskilling carers is such a necessary part of the caring landscape today in Camden?

Many carers have had to give up their education, careers, ambitions and long-term goals. Some never even had the opportunity to get started or missed out on vital opportunities.

We all have something we can contribute to the economy and I really believe it’s important to support people to reach their goals, to have opportunities, and have space/time away from caring.

Encouraging employers to think flexibility and about working environments is important. Employers who aren’t thinking about the value that people with a range of barriers bring to organisations are missing out. Carers have so many skills. Helping them to identify and use them in the workplace is so important.

Phoenix get this. They understand that employees have personal lives away from work and that most of us need to work and earn a living. With a little thought and creativity, a lot can be achieved.

4. In 2025, Carers Trust, Camden Carers and Phoenix Group embarked on a major partnership, focussed on employability for unpaid carers. Why did you want to get involved?

Many carers are facing real hardship at the moment with changes in the benefit system, rises in the cost of living and reductions in services. Carers can have great ideas for small business, can work flexibly and have lots of untapped skills.

The employment project will help carers move closer to achieving their goals. We’ve only just started and already over 30 carers have been in contact with us. We always knew there was a need but this really proves it.

Having workers dedicated to supporting carers with employment, who understand the additional barriers many carers face and work alongside carers, is so important.

5. What does the funding from Phoenix Group mean to you, and how will it affect the lives of carers in Camden?

The funding from Phoenix came at just the right time. We’ve just secured a seven-year contract from Camden Council to deliver services for unpaid carers. The Phoenix partnership will help us embed good practice and knowledge of employment into the organisation.

It already feels like a great partnership. The learning we take on will be shared by Carers Trust with the rest of its network of local carer organisations. The more organisations we can encourage to focus on the many skills carers bring and how a little flexibility can help them get the best from colleagues who are carers, the better for society as a whole.

6. Can you tell us about how the project has been going so far?

I’m really happy that we were able to recruit two staff internally. They will share the work and learn new skills. In turn they will bring the new skills to their colleagues.

It was great to meet the leads on this from Phoenix and to learn how they support unpaid carers in their own organisation. Hearing that big organisations like Phoenix understand the importance of supporting carers is amazing. Let’s make all organisations carer-friendly places to work.

7. What do you expect the results to be from this work, and how will the organisation build upon this impact in the future?

Supporting carers to find the balance between working and caring is vital. Giving carers the opportunity to work and build careers is an important part of the support we offer. But we had no funding to run an employment service for a few years and it was really missed. Now I hope to see carers in Camden leading the way.

I know there are lots of employment and education opportunities in Camden. I don’t want to see carers missing out on these opportunities because the right support isn’t in place.

I expect to see employment support services in Camden identify carers and ensuring they get the right support. At Camden Carers, we’ll further embed employment support into the services we offer.