A new book examined the scope for a 'private law' approach to rewarding, supporting, or compensating informal carers. It explored the recognition of the informal carer and their relationship with the care recipient within diverse fields of private law, from unjust enrichment to succession. Aspects of the analysis included the importance of a promise of a reward from the care recipient, and the appropriate measure of any remedy.
Source: Brian Sloan, Informal Carers and Private Law, Hart Publishing
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Dec
A report examined implementation of 'personalization' for carers. There was still confusion among carers over their eligibility for personal budgets and direct payments, and limited understanding about how personal budgets could be used. There were also inconsistencies between local authorities' approaches to delivering personalization: the way in which personal budget allocations were calculated varied between regions, and there were noticeable differences in what carers could or could not spend their personal budgets on.
Source: Progressing Personalisation: A review of personal budgets and direct payments for carers, Carers Trust
Links: Report | Carers Trust press release
Date: 2012-Dec
A report examined the pressures facing families with caring responsibilities, and the opportunities for improving outcomes for them. A fundamental shift in policy on care for older and disabled people could not only support families better but also add significant value to the economy.
Source: Leslie Mayhew, The UK Care Economy: Improving outcomes for carers, Carers UK
Links: Report | CASS press release | Public Finance report
Date: 2012-Nov
An article examined projections of informal care receipt by older people with disabilities from spouses and (adult) children to 2032 in England. The projections showed that the proportion of older people with disabilities who had a child would fall by 2032 and that the extent of informal care in future might be lower than previously estimated.
Source: Linda Pickard, Raphael Wittenberg, Adelina Comas-Herrera, Derek King, and Juliette Malley, 'Mapping the future of family care: receipt of informal care by older people with disabilities in England to 2032', Social Policy and Society, Volume 11 Issue 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Sep
An article examined the 'care penalty' faced by those providing informal care for adults with disabilities – disadvantage in employment, finances, social inclusion, and health. This penalty could be appropriately tackled through equality law, making care a ground for unlawful discrimination. A 'reasonable adjustment' right should be available to carers, rather than being restricted to people with disabilities.
Source: Charlotte O'Brien, 'Confronting the care penalty: the case for extending reasonable adjustment rights along the disability/care continuum', Journal of Social Welfare & Family Law, Volume 34 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Jul
A study examined unpaid carers' experiences of short breaks from caring in Scotland. Short breaks were considered fundamental to alleviating the physical and emotional demands of caring and to sustain the caring relationship, preventing admission to residential care.
Source: Rest Assured? A study of unpaid carers experiences of short breaks, Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services
Date: 2012-Jul
A survey of kinship carers found that more than 8 in 10 of those who had given up work when children moved in said that they would have liked to have stayed in work; and that 4 in 10 of those who had given up work were now dependent on welfare benefits as their main source of income.
Source: Agnes Gautier and Sarah Wellard, Giving Up the Day Job? Kinship carers and employment, Grandparents Plus
Links: Report | Grandparents Plus press release | Family Lives press release | Nursery World report
Date: 2012-Jun
A survey examined the impact of caring on carers health and well-being. 83 per cent of carers stated that caring had a negative impact on their physical health, and 87 per cent on their mental health. 64 per cent identified a lack of practical support as being a contributing factor. 26 per cent said that they had already experienced cuts to their services.
Source: In Sickness and in Health, Carers UK
Links: Report
Date: 2012-Jun
A new book said that care should be an essential value in private lives and public policies. It considered the importance of care to well-being and social justice, and applied insights from feminist care ethics to care work, and care within personal relationships. It also looked at 'stranger relationships', how people related to the places in which they lived, and the way in which public deliberation about social policy took place.
Source: Marian Barnes, Care in Everyday Life: An ethic of care in practice, Policy Press
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Jun
A new book examined caring relationships, identities, and practices within and across a variety of cultural, familial, geographical, and institutional arenas. Separate sections covered: caring within educational institutions; caring among communities and networks; caring and families; and caring across the life-course.
Source: Chrissie Rogers and Susie Weller (eds.), Critical Approaches to Care: Understanding caring relations, identities and cultures, Routledge
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Jun
An article examined the association between welfare state policies and the gendered organization of intergenerational support to older parents in Europe. Daughters provided somewhat more sporadic and much more intensive support than sons throughout Europe. Although about half of all children who sporadically supported a parent were men, this applied to only 1 out of 4 children who provided intensive support. Legal obligations were positively associated with daughters' likelihood of giving intensive support to parents, but did not affect the likelihood of sons doing so. Cash-for-care schemes were also accompanied by a more unequal distribution of involvement in intensive support at the expense of women. Social services, in contrast, were linked to a lower involvement of daughters in intensive support. The results suggested that welfare states could both preserve or reduce gender inequality in intergenerational support depending on specific arrangements.
Source: Tina Schmid, Martina Brandt and Klaus Haberkern,, 'Gendered support to older parents: do welfare states matter?', European Journal of Ageing, Volume 9 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-May
An article reported the findings of an evaluation of the impacts and outcomes for carers of individual budgets (IBs). Despite their primary aim of increasing choice and control for the service user, IBs had also had a positive impact on carers of IB holders. This had important implications for the widespread roll-out of personal budgets in England, and might also provide wider valuable lessons about the tensions between policies to support carers and policies aimed at promoting choice and control by disabled and older people.
Source: Nicola Moran, Hilary Arksey, Caroline Glendinning, Karen Jones, Ann Netten, and Parvaneh Rabiee, 'Personalisation and carers: Whose rights? Whose benefits?', British Journal of Social Work, Volume 42 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Apr
A report called for a 'technological transformation' to support families caring for ill, frail, and disabled people. Technology could help to create virtual networks to help family members to organize caring duties between them; and remote technology could enable them, and National Health Service staff, to monitor the health and well-being of people being cared for in their own homes.
Source: Future Care: Care and technology in the 21st century, Carers UK
Links: Report | Carers UK press release
Date: 2012-Mar
A report highlighted a lack of support for carers looking after loved ones at the end of their lives, and the negative social and economic impacts that this had.
Source: Committed to Carers: Supporting carers of people at the end of life, Marie Curie Cancer Care
Links: Report | Marie Curie press release
Date: 2012-Mar
Researchers found that family and friends carers were being left to fend for themselves, and suffered significant levels of hardship, as local authorities failed to implement central government guidelines. 45 per cent of English local authorities had not published a family and friends care policy, more than 5 months after the government had required them to do so. 44 per cent of carers surveyed said that they had received no practical help from their local authority, and 95 per cent identified at least one form of support that they had needed: but not received – most mentioned several. More than 70 per cent rated the support that they had received from their local authority as 'poor' or 'very poor'.
Source: Joan Hunt and Suzette Waterhouse, Understanding Family and Friends Care: The Relationship Between Need, Support and Legal Status – Carers Experiences, Family Rights Group | Rachida Aziz and David Roth, Understanding Family and Friends Care: Analysis of a Population Study, Family Rights Group | Rachida Aziz, David Roth, and Bridget Lindley, Understanding Family and Friends Care: The Largest UK Survey, Family Rights Group | Rachida Aziz, David Roth, and Bridget Lindley, Understanding Family and Friends Care: Local Authority Policies – The Good, the Bad and the Non Existent, Family Rights Group
Links: Report (1) | Report (2) | Report (3) | Report (4) | Family Lives press release | Community Care report
Date: 2012-Mar
An article examined the effect of providing unpaid adult care on the caregivers' probability of being employed, using data from the European Community Household Panel.
Source: Emanuele Ciani, 'Informal adult care and caregivers' employment in Europe', Labour Economics, Volume 19 Issue 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Mar