Carers Trust recommendations and calls to action 2020

In September 2020, Carers Trust ran a major survey of unpaid carers across the UK. Our survey asked:

  • What unpaid carers thought about the social care system.
  • How the social care system affects unpaid carers now.
  • What unpaid carers wanted most from a reformed, sustainably funded social care system.
  • What unpaid carers would say to the Prime Minister or the Chancellor about what would make a difference to them as an unpaid carer

Over 2,000 unpaid carers took part in the survey.

Recommendations 

Recommendation 1:

Carers Trust calls on the UK Government to form, at pace, a plan to move towards sufficient, secure and sustainable social care funding reform for the long-term. This social care funding must measurably benefit and reach carers in their own right, separately from the people they care for.

Recommendation 2:

This plan must move away from annual settlements, which do not allow local or devolved governments to plan resources effectively. Local authorities are doing their best with what they have, but do not have sufficient funding to be able to support unpaid carers properly.

Recommendation 3:

Social care funding reform was a key election promise, and so Carers Trust calls on the government to implement this before the next General Election in 2024.

Recommendation 4:

In England, funding reform must run alongside an extension to a Carers Action Plan.

Further information

Find out more about the survey results.

Calls to action

Carers Trust urges you to listen to unpaid carers’ voices and join us to take action to fix the crisis in social care funding so that we can address the pressures unpaid carers face every day.

Together, we will ensure that unpaid carers get the right support, at the right time, in the right place.

  • If you are a parliamentarian or local authority, please email us at policy@carers.org so that we can work together to make a difference.
  • If you want to make a difference for unpaid carers, please write to your MP. Ask them to work to provide a lasting social care funding solution that works for unpaid carers. Ask them to write to the Prime Minister and the Chancellor so that the people who make the most important decisions know that unpaid carers matter. If you want help to write the letter, please email us at policy@carers.org.  

Let’s make a difference for unpaid carers together.