Publication type
Report
Authors
Publication date
April 12, 2023
Summary:
Unpaid carers play a substantial and vital role in meeting social care needs. The care they provide has enormous value, both for the people they care for and for wider society. Many carers experience great satisfaction from their role, and through the help and support they provide to friends and family members they may also reduce the costs of formal social care provision.
At the same time, caring responsibilities can come at a high personal and financial cost, despite the 2014 Care Act giving carers the right to receive support. 1 in 5 carers report feeling socially isolated and 4 in 10 report financial difficulties because of their caring role.
Access to formal, paid social care is not easy. The adult social care workforce is bigger than the NHS workforce, but 11% of posts are unfilled, and staff experience low pay and difficult work conditions. Since 2010/11 funding for social care has not kept pace with demand and it has become harder to access care.
This means people may go without the care they need, pay more for their care, and/or turn to their family and friends for unpaid care. Increasing pressures in the NHS to discharge patients from hospital could lead to carers supporting relatives and friends with more complex needs, further adding to pressure on unpaid carers.
In this analysis, we explore national data on the number of unpaid carers and trends over time, as well as which groups are more likely to have caring responsibilities and who they provide care for. We give an overview of the types of support available to carers, and what we know – and don’t know – about how many carers are accessing support.
Subjects
Link
#557740