A report said that caring responsibilities could make life difficult for young adults, depriving them of the opportunities enjoyed by their peers.
Source: Fiona Becker and Saul Becker, Young Adult Carers in the UK: Experiences, needs and services for carers aged 16-24, Princess Royal Trust for Carers (020 7480 7788)
Links: Report | Summary | PRTC press release | Skills for Life press release | Community Care report
Date: 2008-Dec
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on carers. It said that carers were one of the key groups of people that it was focusing on in its welfare reform strategy, and its drive to reduce both child and pensioner poverty.
Source: Valuing and Supporting Carers: Government Response to the Committee's Fourth Report, First Special Report (Session 2007-08), HC 105, House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Response | MPs report | PRTC press release | Carers UK press release | Community Care report
Date: 2008-Dec
The government announced that it would propose an amendment to the Pensions Bill to allow people to buy up to an additional 6 years of voluntary national insurance contributions, over and above those permitted under the existing time limits, in order to enjoy a higher state pension. It said that the measures would offer a fairer deal to women and carers. They would benefit thousands of women who traditionally had incomplete national insurance records and therefore often received a low state pension. The proposals would apply to those who reached state pension age between 6 April 2008 and 5 April 2015 and who already had 20 qualifying years on their national insurance record, taking account of home responsibilities protection.
Source: House of Commons Hansard, Written Answers 28 October 2008, column 1577W, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Hansard | DWP press release | TUC press release | Consumer Association press release | Help the Aged press release | Telegraph report | Guardian report | FT report | People Management report
Date: 2008-Oct
A paper said that family care was mainly provided by women: but as women's economic opportunities increased they would not continue to bear the costs of providing care unaided. To create a sustainable care system, care and carers needed to be better supported and more highly valued, to involve more men in caring and reduce gender inequalities.
Source: Susan Himmelweit and Hilary Land, Reducing Gender Inequalities to Create a Sustainable Care System, Joseph Rowntree Foundation (01904 629241)
Links: Paper
Date: 2008-Oct
A report examined the effects of unpaid care provision on the lives of older people. Older carers providing 'heavy' care showed a markedly lower quality of life compared to equivalent non-carers. More than any other characteristic, including general health and experience of pain, it was the memory functioning of individuals receiving care that had the biggest influence on the quality of life of older carers. A linked discussion paper explored ideas for improving support for older carers.
Source: Andy Ross, James Lloyd, Michael Weinhardt and Hayley Cheshire, Living and Caring? An Investigation of the experiences of older carers, International Longevity Centre – UK (020 7735 7565) | James Lloyd, Living and Caring for All, International Longevity Centre – UK
Links: Report | Discussion paper
Date: 2008-Sep
A report by a committee of MPs said that the Department for Work and Pensions needed to take a 'stronger and more proactive' lead in government policy on carers. As well as identifying and implementing specific policies to improve the lives of carers, DWP needed to take specific account of carers in all its work, including its role in reducing child poverty and pensioner poverty, its efforts to see 80 per cent of working age people in employment, and its vision of giving people equality of opportunity.
Source: Valuing and Supporting Carers, Fourth Report (Session 2007-08), HC 485, House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Carers UK press release | Citizens Advice press release | PRTC press release | NCH press release | Help the Aged press release | Community Care report | BBC report | Telegraph report | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Aug
An article highlighted the need to move away from popular and 'simplistic' representations of children with caring responsibilities as victims of their parents' illnesses, as 'little angels' whose caring work was condoned through rewards, or as (exploited) informal domestic workers whose childhoods were inevitably compromised by the caring activity they undertook.
Source: Jo Aldridge, 'All work and no play? Understanding the needs of children with caring responsibilities', Children & Society, Volume 22 Number 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Jul
An article examined associations between (on the one hand) employment history and marital status and (on the other) unpaid care provision among those aged 40-59 in England and Wales. The results suggested a continuing gender dimension in care provision which interacted with marital status and employment in gender-specific ways. Implementation of strategies to enable those in midlife to combine care-giving and work responsibilities, should they wish to do so, should be an urgent priority.
Source: Harriet Young and Emily Grundy, 'Longitudinal perspectives on caregiving, employment history and marital status in midlife in England and Wales', Health and Social Care in the Community, Volume 16 Issue 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Jul
Four reports were published from the taskforces created to help the government develop the carers' strategy.
Source: New Deal for Carers: Employment Task Force – Report, Department of Health (08701 555455) | New Deal for Carers: Equalities Task Force – Report, Department of Health | New Deal for Carers: Health and Social Care Task Force – Report, Department of Health | New Deal for Carers: Incomes Task Force – Report, Department of Health
Links: Employment Report | Equalities Report | Health and Social Care Report | Incomes Report
Date: 2008-Jul
The government published a strategy for the care and support of carers. New commitments included: £150 million towards planned short breaks for carers; £38 million towards supporting carers to enter or re-enter the job market; and £6 million towards improving support for young carers.
Source: Carers at the Heart of 21st-century Families and Communities, Department of Health (08701 555455) and other departments
Links: Strategy | Summary | Hansard | DH press release | Carers UK press release | Counsel and Care press release | Alzheimers Society press release | EDCM press release | PRTC press release | Rethink press release | NCH press release | Resolution Foundation press release | Telegraph report | Community Care report
Date: 2008-Jun
A think-tank report called for carers to receive individual budgets to overcome pressures caused by means testing and rising eligibility criteria for social care.
Source: Sophie Moullin, Just Care? A fresh approach to adult services, Institute for Public Policy Research (020 7470 6100)
Links: Report | IPPR press release | Community Care report | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Jun
Researchers found that 1 in 5 young people aged 16 in Northern Ireland provided some sort of informal care for sick, elderly, or disabled relatives or friends.
Source: Paula Devine and Katrina Lloyd, Young Carers, ARK/School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work/Queen's University Belfast (028 9097 3034)
Links: Report | QUB press release
Date: 2008-Jun
A briefing paper said that over one-third of young carers provided care for someone with a serious mental health problem who was their parent or held a parental role. The high level of stigma attached to mental health problems might lead young carers to exclude themselves from social involvement. The education system could play a major role by recognizing the impact of the caring role on children's and young people's experience of education, and making appropriate onward referrals.
Source: Diane Roberts, Mim Bernard, Gabriela Misca and Emma Head, Experiences of Children and Young People Caring for a Parent with a Mental Health Problem, Research Briefing 24, Social Care Institute for Excellence (020 7089 6840)
Links: Briefing
Date: 2008-May
An article examined the impact that caring responsibilities had on women's employment. Carers' employment was affected by the duration of a caring episode, financial considerations, the needs of the person they cared for, carers' beliefs about the compatibility of informal care and paid work, and employers' willingness to accommodate carers' needs. Overall, informal carers continued to face difficulties when they tried to combine employment and care – in spite of recent policy initiatives designed to help them.
Source: Fiona Carmichael, Claire Hulme, Sally Sheppard and Gemma Connell, 'Work-life imbalance: informal care and paid employment in the UK', Feminist Economics, Volume 14 Issue 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-May
An article examined what could be done to identify, assess, and support young people caring for a parent with a mental health problem.
Source: Gordon Grant, Julie Repper and Mike Nolan, 'Young people supporting parents with mental health problems: experiences of assessment and support', Health and Social Care in the Community, Volume 16 Issue 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-May
Two linked papers examined trends in the supply of informal care in England. The number of people providing intense informal care to 'younger' adults (aged 18-64) was projected to increase by around 3 per cent between 2005 and 2041. The number of people providing care to older parents was projected to increase by 27.5 per cent over the same period.
Source: Linda Pickard, Informal Care for Younger Adults in England: Current provision and issues in future supply, England 2005-2041, Discussion Paper 2513, Personal Social Services Research Unit/University of Kent (01227 823963) and London School of Economics | Linda Pickard, Informal Care for Older People Provided by Their Adult Children: Projections of supply and demand to 2041 in England, Discussion Paper 2515, Personal Social Services Research Unit
Date: 2008-Apr
An article examined carers' decision-making around work and care, drawing on evidence from interviews with 80 working-age carers in England. Key factors that affected carers' decisions were: existing and anticipated financial need; the constraints arising from receipt of social security benefits; personal identity; job opportunities and scope for flexibility; social services provision; and carers' own health.
Source: Hilary Arksey and Caroline Glendinning, 'Combining work and care: carers' decision-making in the context of competing policy pressures', Social Policy and Administration,Volume 42 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Feb
The Advocate General of the European Court of Justice said that treating employees less favourably because of their caring responsibilities for disabled relatives was unlawful. A European Directive regarding equal treatment in employment prohibited 'disability discrimination by association', and should apply to British law. The case had been brought by a legal secretary who claimed her employer had refused to let her work flexible hours to care for her disabled son.
Source: Coleman v Attridge Law, Opinion of Advocate General Links: Opinion | Carers UK press release | PRTC press release | EHRC press release | Help the Aged press release | EDCM press release | TUC press release | FT report | Guardian report | Community Care report
Date: 2008-Jan
The Department for Work and Pensions announced that the Pension Service and the Disability and Carers Service would be brought together into a single agency – the Pension, Disability and Carers Service – from 1 April 2008. Over half the customers of the Disability and Carers Service were also customers of the Pension Service, and the proportion was growing as people lived longer. The new agency would enable a 'better and more seamless service' to be delivered to them.
Source: Press release 22 January 2008, Department for Work and Pensions (020 7712 2171)
Links: DWP press release | Hansard
Date: 2008-Jan
An article brought together qualitative and quantitative findings from a continuing programme of carer-related research (beginning in 1993) into the process and characteristics of carer assessment – from the perspectives of carers for individuals with a range of health and social care needs, and of practitioners.
Source: Diane Seddon et al., 'In their own right: translating the policy of carer assessment into practice', British Journal of Social Work, Volume 37 Number 8
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Jan