Raising the profile of unpaid carers at Labour Party Conference September 2019
We Care Campaign Stands up for Unpaid Carers
We Care Campaign advocate Rachael Martin-Smith took to the Labour Party 2019 Conference stage to address 1,000 delegates on behalf of the UK's 8 million unpaid carers. Points made included the £132 billion of savings provided annually to our economy by unpaid carers whilst being underespresented and unrecognised. The brief speech received lots of support from the conference floor.
Watch her speech below: from 1. 12.50
We Care Campaign put the 'real' back into Carers Week
Carers Week 2019
During Carers Week 10th June -16th June, 2019 We Care Campaign highlighted your experiences of caring for family members and friends.
See our Carers Week highlights here
See our Carers Week highlights here
Carers Strategy
Response to the Carers Strategy petition from the Department of Health and Social Care
Response March 2019
Barbara Keeley was sent the following response to the Carers Strategy petition. The e-petition obtained 2,124 signatures between January and July 2018. This petition was handed into parliament in November 2018 to obtain a response from the Department of Health and Social Care. This response is below:
.....towards the end of 2017 ministers took the decision not to go forward with publishing a National Carers Strategy so that carers could be considered as part of the forthcoming Green Paper on care and support. The Green Paper will be published at the earliest opportunity and will include a focus on how we support carers as part of a sustainable health and care system. In the meantime, in order to demonstrate how the Government was continuing to support informal (unpaid) carers, we published a Carers Action Plan on 5 June 2018. The Carers Action Plan sets out a cross-Government programme of targeted work to support carers over the next two years.
We Care's response
Individual carers, their families and supporters have been badly let down over the decision not to go forward with the Carers Strategy. Worse still is the government's hollow promise that carers will be considered as part of the Green Paper on care and support. Carers have sadly grown used to this repeated inaction and their issues being glossed over. The Green Paper has been repeatedly delayed from an original publication date of Summer 2017. We are still waiting...
.....towards the end of 2017 ministers took the decision not to go forward with publishing a National Carers Strategy so that carers could be considered as part of the forthcoming Green Paper on care and support. The Green Paper will be published at the earliest opportunity and will include a focus on how we support carers as part of a sustainable health and care system. In the meantime, in order to demonstrate how the Government was continuing to support informal (unpaid) carers, we published a Carers Action Plan on 5 June 2018. The Carers Action Plan sets out a cross-Government programme of targeted work to support carers over the next two years.
We Care's response
Individual carers, their families and supporters have been badly let down over the decision not to go forward with the Carers Strategy. Worse still is the government's hollow promise that carers will be considered as part of the Green Paper on care and support. Carers have sadly grown used to this repeated inaction and their issues being glossed over. The Green Paper has been repeatedly delayed from an original publication date of Summer 2017. We are still waiting...
Carers Rights Day November 2018
Carers Strategy Petition being presented in parliament November 2018
Barbara Keeley, MP for Worsley and Eccles South, Shadow Minister for Social Care and Mental Health presents the We Care Campaign petition.
Launch Event
We Care held a launch event in Canterbury, where carers and their supporters were invited to chat about their caring issues to Canterbury MP, Rosie Duffield.
In March 2016 carers were asked to contribute to a consultation, to inform government on the new Carers Strategy. 6,500 carers and carers support organisations, alongside charities contributed to the consultation.
Carers waited throughout 2017 when government announced that the Carers Strategy had been scrapped and a Carers Action Plan would replace it.
In January 2018, fed up with waiting the We Care Campaign was founded and launched an online petition. Its aim to get government to publish the long awaited Carers Strategy. The petition ran for 6 months, gaining support from carers support organisations, individual carers and decision makers.
A Carers Action Plan was finally published in June 2018.
But an Action Plan is not a Strategy.
Carers waited throughout 2017 when government announced that the Carers Strategy had been scrapped and a Carers Action Plan would replace it.
In January 2018, fed up with waiting the We Care Campaign was founded and launched an online petition. Its aim to get government to publish the long awaited Carers Strategy. The petition ran for 6 months, gaining support from carers support organisations, individual carers and decision makers.
A Carers Action Plan was finally published in June 2018.
But an Action Plan is not a Strategy.
