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Carers Action plan
We want an Action Plan with more action on supporting carers
financially, argues Heléna Herklots, Carers UK Chief Executive.
64 actions but very little on
improving financial support
for carers. In a nutshell,
this is the new cross-
Government ‘Carers Action
Plan 2018-2020: Supporting
Carers Today’.
The Government announced
its intention to produce
a Carers Strategy back
in 2015 and issued a
call for evidence in 2016
to which over 6,000
people responded. There
then followed a time of
political upheaval, four
changes in Ministers and
an announcement of the
Government’s intention
to issue a Green Paper
on social care for older
people. There was a risk
that there would be nothing
specific for carers, so we
pushed hard for an action
plan to improve things
in the short term whilst
the big questions – not
least how to increase
funding for our chronically
underfunded social care
system – are taken on in
the Government’s wider
plans for social care to be
published this autumn.
The Action Plan is largely
designed for carers in
England, although there are
12
measures that might impact
positively on carers in other
nations.
There are some positive
measures to welcome in the
action plan and importantly
it ensures that six
government departments
are engaged in work for
carers. Carers UK is directly
involved in some of these
actions. For example we are:
• working with NHS England
on how to make the NHS
a more carer friendly
employer
• leading work on carers as
part of the development
of the Government’s new
loneliness strategy
• producing an e-learning
resource to help carers
recognise the skills
developed through caring
carersuk.org