How we are run

Carers UK – your organisation

Carers UK has a history stretching back to the 1960s when a carer called Mary Webster founded the first ever carers' organisation. This organisation merged with another carers' organisation to form Carers UK.  Over the years countless thousands of our members, as carers themselves, have fought for a better deal for carers and have helped to lead and shape the charity and ensure that Carers UK is truly ‘carer-led’.

Who runs us?

Our constitution sets out how we must be run. As a membership organisation, carers vote to elect our Board of Trustees who act on their behalf. 80% of our Trustees must be carers or former carers. This ensures that our organisation is always run by people who understand what it is like to be a carer. It also gives us the flexibility to appoint a small proportion of Trustees who are not carers – people we can handpick for their skills and expertise. 

All of our Trustees bring a particular set of skills and experience. They are all volunteers and are all unpaid but between them they have a big responsibility to keep the organisation on track.

What are Carers UK’s  priorities?

Carers UK regularly asks our members what issues matter most to them. We survey our membership to shape our campaign priorities, as well helping to develop our future services. Every few years we set a strategy, usually for 3 or 5 years, that guides our work into the future. Over our history our priorities have changed to reflect the times but what has remained constant is that carers are at the heart of Carers UK, driving our work and leading us into the future.