For care services
Good quality care services are critically important for people needing care as well as for unpaid carers. Great services provide breaks, help maintain carers’ health and wellbeing, enable them to be in paid work, improve wellbeing or support other members of the family such as children.
As well as providing good quality care, there are other things that care services can do. We know that:
- 600 unpaid carers give up work every day in order to care
- 70% of unpaid carers have a health condition compared with only 59% of the rest of the population, often as a result of caring
Care and support providers
Care and support services can give carers the peace of mind they need to take breaks from caring. Care services are often at a key part of carers' lives and are ideally placed to connect them with support and information. There are many simple actions that care and support providers can take to support unpaid carers and help support carers’ equality:
- Actively welcome feedback and input from unpaid carers i.e. family members or close friends and involve them in decisions about the care package and support provided to the person needing care.
- Promote a Carer's Assessment to anyone caring unpaid for the person they support.
- Signpost advice, information and support services to carers.
- Recognise that some of your staff will have unpaid caring responsibilities of their own. One in three staff in the NHS have an unpaid caring responsibility for a disabled, older or ill family member or friend. Do you know how many of your staff have caring responsibilities? Do they need more support?
- As an employer, there are many simple things you can do. Just talking about caring makes a difference, as does promoting flexible working. Visit our page for employers
