The Local Government Association Community Wellbeing Board members recently agreed six new policy recommendations around unpaid carers.
Introduction
The Local Government Association Community Wellbeing Board members agreed some new policy recommendations on unpaid carers.
The policy lines were developed through discussions with local authority carer leads, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) Carer Network, Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations and Carers UK and Carers Trust. A LGA led workshop with local authority Carer lead officers was also held to discuss unpaid carers.
Six recommendations were agreed.
Recommendation 1: The LGA support a National Carers Strategy.
- The LGA has previously called for a national Carers Strategy, and we want to see a big focus on unpaid carers in the forthcoming Casey Commission on social strategic care. The LGA recommend that the strategy needs to have at short, medium, and long-term vision and to align with existing national health and social care plans and is coproduced with carers.
- The last national Carers Strategy was 2014-2016. It is an opportune time to produce a new carers strategy – there have been many changes in carers needs and understanding of pressures on carers since the last strategy - including more ageing carers, the impact of the pandemic, more diversity of need and an increase in people with complex care being supported at home.
- The strategy should reflect the ageing population and the rise in complex needs of people living in the community. It should be all-ages and reflect the specific needs of young carers and parent carers.
- The strategy should be informed by carer rights and address inequalities that are prevalent in caring. Most Carers are women, and it is important that gender equality is addressed in all work. Caring can also have a profound impact on the educational and work opportunities of young carers. Carers are not always identified by organisations, or they may not see themselves as carers. It is important that any policy addresses these issues.
- It is important that any policy recognises pressures on carers and that expectations of carers are realistic and sustainable – reflecting the stress and anxiety of caring.
- The strategy should support identification of carers who may not be known or may not identify themselves as carers. It should promote ways to help to join up data between agencies - all who may have information on carers or opportunities to communicate.
- The strategy should encourage and support the creation of national datasets on carers to help address disparities in health, employment, and education.
- The strategy should ensure councils have the flexibility to tailor solutions to their local population, accounting for specific priorities and needs.
- The strategy should be supported by resourcing to implement improvement and recognise and promote best practice in supporting carers.
Recommendation 2: Government research and address gaps in parent/carer support and young carers
- We recommend that the Government research parent-carer needs. Further understanding of their specific needs will help strengthen efforts to ensure that parent-carers are identified and supported, particularly during the period of transition between child and adult services.
Recommendation 3: The LGA formally supports the 'No Wrong Doors for Young Carers' initiative
- This is Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) developed by the LGA, ADASS, Partners in Care and Health and the Carers Trust. The MoU is designed to improve joint working between adult and children's social care services, Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and other key organisations in respect of identification and support for young carers and their families. It covers a range of areas such as identification, whole-family approaches to support and transitions from children to adult services.
Recommendation 4: Enable/support improved data sharing across systems
- There is a role for government to enable or promote greater data sharing across health, social care, and local government for unpaid carers, leveraging lessons from the pandemic when data sharing was more seamless and other examples of good practice.
- Support the development of data sharing agreements that prioritise the needs of carers within ICS frameworks.
Recommendation 5: Improve carers benefits and rights
- The LGA support the Government review of carers allowance so that carers are not charged for earnings related overpayments if they go over the current weekly earnings limit. This recommendation was agreed in the LGA October 2024 Budget response.
- The LGA support two weeks paid carers leave - subject to more evidence of its impact.
- LGA support carers to be given ‘protected characteristic’ status.
- The LGA support a long-term approach to funding local welfare assistance that recognises carers as a priority group (as 28 per cent live in poverty). This complements our call on carers allowance and benefits. Local government has played a key role in supporting thousands of carers in financial crisis through small grants. However, as we know, models like the Household Support Fund continue to be stop gaps, and the short-term nature of funding means local authorities struggle to put consistent and visible approaches into place.
- The LGA to consider potentially develop further work in collaboration carers representative organisations to promote carers needs, rights or entitlements.
Recommendation 6: The LGA recognises that unpaid carers require specific information and advice
- The LGA will highlight good practice in this area.
The Board also suggested some further areas of focus including:
- Ensuring coproduction of local and national policy and support with carers
- Promoting bereavement support
- Promoting understanding of diverse cultural needs regarding unpaid carers
- Highlighting the importance of a local all ages carers strategy
- Promoting digital technology to support carers and highlighting good examples
- Have a further understanding of end-of-life care and support to carers
- Highlight examples of support and information for carers to return to work
- Continue to share good examples of local authorities support to carer.
Background information
Legal duties and national policy context
The Care Act 2014 and the Children and Families Act 2014 include specific provisions designed to improve support and outcomes for carers across England.
Between them, the two pieces of legislation introduced a duty on local authorities to provide a young carer needs assessment if a young carer or their parent requested one, or if it appears that they may need one. There was no minimum age or level of caring included. The aim of this new right was to prevent or reduce ‘inappropriate or excessive levels of care’ being provided by children.
The Care Act 2014 and care and support guidance also introduced a duty on local authorities to offer ‘transitions assessments’ to young carers if it feels the young carer is likely to have needs for support after becoming a duty on local authorities to take ‘reasonable steps’ to identify young carers.
In May 2024, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on carers published its report on a National Carers Strategy. Its view was that the development of a new strategy would enable the UK Government to better coordinate its support for unpaid carers across various departments, publicly demonstrate its support for unpaid carers, and clearly communicate this to the public.
It stated that a strategy would set a clear direction of travel and look at the interaction between different policies and shared Government ambitions across different Departments regarding support for unpaid carers – ensuring that their needs are understood and being responded to at highest level of Government. Priorities include:
- Supporting carers to stay in / return to work
- Improving carers’ health and wellbeing and population health.
- Preventing poverty
- Combatting loneliness and social isolation
- Improving equality of opportunity and preventing discrimination.
The APPG on young carers also supported a strategy. They recommended that the strategy should have senior cross-government support, be co-produced with young carers and young adult carers, and will need appropriate financial resource to ensure implementation.
The APPG further recommended a strategy should set out: Plans to increase early identification across education, health, and social care. There should be a particular emphasis on identification and support for young carers from under-represented backgrounds, including young carers from minority ethnic communities, younger young carers, and those caring for people because of mental illness or addiction.
Other key policy influences
- Better Care Fund (BCF). Supporting unpaid carers continues to be a priority of the BCF, supporting systems to take an integrated systems approach to supporting unpaid carers.
- Anchor Institutions role. Many Intergrated Care Systems (ICS) place a focus on the role they play as anchors and how they can use and influence their own recruitment, employment, procurement activity to better support unpaid carers - so wider than just direct service commissioning / delivery for unpaid carers. It also links to the broad ICS goal to support social and economic development.
- The Health and Care Act 2022 placed duties on ICBs to involve unpaid carers and those they care for in decision making. ICPs should also promote this involvement in the development of the integrated care strategy (including unpaid and young carers) - NHS England Working in partnership with people and communities: statutory guidance.
- Neighbourhoods - the neighbourhood health approach has the potential to better support unpaid carers by understanding at that geography carer needs and the assets that exist to support them. A national carers strategy needs to reflect the value of working at and understanding communities at the neighbourhood level.
- £22 million for unpaid carers was announced by the Government in 2024 as part of the Accelerated Reform Fund. The Fund supports unpaid carers and adult social care through innovation and new initiatives. The LGA support this funding, but local authorities need immediate funding to alleviate current challenges.
Key statistics on unpaid carers (source Carers UK):
- The most recent Census 2021 puts the estimated number of unpaid carers at 5 million in England and Wales. This means that around 9 per cent of people are providing unpaid care. However, Carers UK research in 2022 estimates the number of unpaid carers could be as high as 10.6 million.
- 4.7 per cent of the population in England and Wales are providing 20 hours or more of care a week.
- Over the period 2010-2020, every year, 4.3 million people became unpaid carers – 12,000 people a day.
- 59 per cent of unpaid carers are women (Census 2021). Women are more likely to become carers and to provide more hours of unpaid care than men. More women than men provide high intensity care at ages when they would expect to be in paid work.
- One in seven people in the workplace in the UK are juggling work and care.
- Between 2010-2020, people aged 46-65 were the largest age group to become unpaid carers. 41 per cent of people who became unpaid carers were in this age group.