Protest from Home: Call on Westminster to give carers the legal right to a break

At some point in our lives, we are all likely to care for someone important to us, or to receive care ourselves. 

When that time comes, we should live in a country that makes it easier, not harder, to care. A country where no-one comes close to breaking point from taking on unsustainable levels of responsibility.

There are an estimated 6 million unpaid carers in the UK. They are family members, partners, friends and neighbours. They don’t clock off. They don’t get paid. And much of the time, they don’t get a break.

Decades of underfunding in social care mean more and more people are going without the professional help they need, even though many are caring 24/7.

Carers are exhausted. Not just physically from the long and often intense hours they spend looking after someone, but mentally and financially, too.

Carers need more than gratitude or praise. They need a break.

But for many, even just a few hours to themselves is impossible. To most carers, a holiday is just a pipedream. That’s either because replacement care is hard to come by as social care is so stretched, or because it isn’t affordable, or because there aren’t locally funded options for breaks.

A partnership should exist between government and people. Carers deserve a lot more in return for what they do.

That’s why we’re calling on the UK Government to make sure carers can access a legal right to a break from their caring role.

This means:

• Letting carers take a break without having to fight for it
• Councils proactively identify carers who need a break and ensure it happens
• Carers can access properly funded replacement care — and/or a funded break away
• UK Government provides the funding local services and councils need to deliver this support
• Learning from similar efforts elsewhere in the UK, such as the Care Reform (Scotland) Bill and Short Breaks Scheme (Wales).

Caring shouldn’t come at a cost to your health, your income, or your identity.

The right to a break is essential to help carers keep going — and to protect the people they care for. It’s also vital for the NHS.

Three in five of us will become a carer in our lifetime.

This is personal. This is urgent. This is about all of us.

Sign the petition.
Stand with carers.
Let’s give everyone the legal right to a break.