State Of Caring Survey

TAKE THE SURVEY here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/TC6LNB7

The survey is due to close on 24 May 2019.

The time you take to respond to the survey provides us with incredibly important evidence that enables us to:

  • Campaign for more support for carers and those that you care for
  • Understand how services and support are delivered, and influence the people that commission and design support for carers
  • Gather evidence of the impact of policy changes made by the UK and devolved governments

We need your help to paint a picture of what it’s like to be a carer in 2019.

We need your evidence to push carers up the agenda for policy makers and to campaign for recognition and change. In the next year we want to bring your voice and experience to the heart of decisions about:

Spending on care and support services: The way carers are recognised and supported will be a key part of the Government’s social care policy proposals expected soon. Decisions made will affect carers in England but also social care spending across the UK.

Financial support for carers: Campaigning to improve financial support for carers remains our top priority and we’d like to hear about how caring has affected your finances both in the short term and how you are able to save for the future.

Improving carers health and wellbeing: How the NHS puts into practice commitments to act on identifying and supporting carers earlier and ensuring they have plans in place for when they need the back up of health and care services. We also want to understand how we could support people who are caring to look after their mental and physical health by being more active. We know that carers face challenges to taking part in exercise or sport and we’re keen to see how we can help address those.

What you told us in 2018

You gave us evidence of:

Caring costs: Over a third of carers (37%) responding to our survey described their financial situation as ‘struggling to make ends meet’, while a further 20% said they are in or have been in debt as a result of caring. The impact of caring is greater the longer someone has been caring – just two in five (44%) of those caring for more than 15 years could afford their bills without struggling financially, compared with three in five (62%) of carers in their first year.

Cuts to support: Only one in ten (10%) of carers responding felt confident that the support they receive and rely upon will continue.

Carers need more support with their own health: 72% of carers responding said they had suffered mental ill health as a result of caring and 61% reported physical ill health as a result of caring. During Carers Week our messages about the importance of supporting carers with the health and wellbeing had a rech of 100 million.

What we did with your evidence:
Your responses enabled helped us to provide comprehensive evidence to the committee of MPs who scrutinise the work or the Department for Work and Pensions. The Committee made a series of important recommendations; calling on the Government to put in place paid care leave for employees juggling work and care and to make a number of change to Carer’s Allowance to make it easier to earn money alongside receiving it.

Your evidence of the health impacts of caring helped us push for the most robust commitments to date to improve the way that the NHS identifies and offers support to carers in the NHS Long Term Plan.

Your experience of the care and support system was at the heart of calls from influential organisations such as the Local Government Association for more funding for social care.

Thank you to everyone who is able to respond.