In a new report, the Nuffield Trust has uncovered that there is a “widening gulf” between policy rhetoric on support for unpaid carers and what carers are faced with in reality.
In a new analysis of carers policy in England, the Nuffield Trust has found that although the government has put forward plans to improve support for millions of unpaid carers, there has been a drop of 13,000 in the number of carers receiving direct support from their local authority.
This figure has been declining over recent years, falling from 121,000 in 2015/16 to 108,000 in 2020/21. This comes in tandem with a 42 per cent fall in respite and breaks for carers, and an 11 per cent fall in local authority funding for carers over the same period.
The report’s authors warn that in order to tackle the issue, government must take urgent action to improve the support available for carers, or this will inevitably have a knock-on effect for other key services.
The study was compiled from the latest available data on carers from official sources, and a wide-ranging analysis of the policy proposals published by previous governments. The starting point of the report is the 2008 Carers Strategy, which set out plans to recognise and value carers and provide support to help them maintain a balance between their caring responsibilities and a life outside caring.
The Nuffield Trust highlights that out of the five strategic themes outlined in the 2008 Carers Strategy and 2018 Carers Action Plan, there was little to no progress in two of them – which revolved around ‘recognising and supporting carers’ and ensuring ‘employment and financial wellbeing’. Progress in the remaining three was deemed to be limited.
Among other findings, the authors of the report found that over the previous six years, the numbers of carers being assessed for local authority support has only grown by one per cent (from 386,605 in 2015/16 to 388,730 in 2020/21). Meanwhile, 13,000 fewer carers within those assessed were in receipt of any direct support, a decline of 11 per cent.
Gross expenditure by local authorities on services for carers has fallen 11 per cent since 2015/16 to £156 million, and 24,000 fewer carers have been provided with ‘carer support involving the cared-for person’ compared to 2015/16, which equates to a fall of 42 per cent.
Commenting on the report, Charlotte Paddison, senior fellow at the Nuffield Trust, said: “Over the last decade and a half, politicians have talked the talk of supporting and recognising carers, with laudable policy statements and plans to support them. But our work reveals a widening gulf between this rhetoric and the reality facing unpaid carers. As we experience the biggest cost-of-living squeeze in living memory, the need to address this has never been more pressing.
“At the heart of this is a lack of accountability at the highest levels of government about who is responsible for success and failure, a paucity of robust data both on carers’ needs and on national and local support for them, and the near total invisibility of carers in wider policymaking.
“Given the crucial role that unpaid carers play in supporting our overstretched NHS and social care systems, it is imperative that the new government takes immediate steps to improve the plight of unpaid carers and raise their profile in wider public policy.”
In its conclusions, the report makes a series of targeted recommendations for ministers to address the problem.
This includes clearly identifying who is accountable at a ministerial level for achieving success in better supporting unpaid carers; appointing a senior director-level policy lead for carers within the Department of Health & Social Care; including carers in health inequalities impact assessments at a local level; and a drive for better linked data between social care and health care.
Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
