A new report has been launched to encourage all political parties to commit to the development of a new National Carers Strategy.
This comes from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Carers, which has stated that the development of a new National Carers Strategy would better recognise the significant challenges that are faced by carers. A new strategy would also support improvements to carers’ health and wellbeing, finances, and access to care and support.
According to the report, unpaid care in the UK has a value of £162 billion, with this influencing the call for a step-change in how unpaid carers are supporting by the government. Also referenced in the report are the findings of a recent survey conducted on behalf of the APPG, with this receiving more than 5,000 responses from carers and organisations that represent them. Support for the development of a new National Carers Strategy was overwhelming, with 95% of respondents strongly agreeing with the idea, and 14% agreeing.
Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Carers, Dame Caroline Dinenage MP, said:
“I am delighted that we are launching this report today which calls for a new National Carers Strategy to recognise the vital support that families and friends provide on a daily basis to loved ones. I am simply staggered by the huge response we received from carers and others to the survey that we held earlier this year; a response that would be worthy of a very well-engaged government consultation.
“I was very pleased that there is almost unanimous support for a step-change in the government’s approach to supporting millions of people who do such important work in caring unpaid for their family and friends.”
There has not been a new National Carers Strategy published by the government since 2008, with no cross-government approach to the supporting of carers since the Carers Action Plan 2018-2020 ended.
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