Monday 10 December 2018

The Carers’ Covenant: why we are calling on the Government to introduce a bold new policy agenda for carers

a post by Ben Glover for the DEMOS blog

Everyone knows social care desperately needs to change but there is little agreement of how. It comes as no surprise then that the Government’s Green Paper on the matter is several months late. Could informal carers, so neglected in today’s public debate about social care, offer a route out of this political impasse?

In new research published today, Demos finds informal carers are making an enormous societal contribution, saving the UK an estimated £139bn a year. It is no exaggeration to say that our entire formal health and social care systems would collapse tomorrow without them.

But too many carers feel their invaluable work goes unrecognised. Carers we spoke to in Leeds and London were struggling and finding it hard to cope. Caring was affecting their finances, pushing many of them towards poverty. It was harming their relationships and affecting their health and well-being. Worst of all, society appeared to be doing almost nothing about this.

Continue reading includes link to the full report.


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