How we help carers

Carers UK supports carers and provides information and advice about caring

  • Support from those who know - in your area and round the clock
    As carers we believe we are best placed to understand the stresses and strains caring can bring. Our local branches are run by carers and offer support on the doorstep. Our website forum is a virtual support club, open 24/7, where carers can talk to other carers and get help from those who truly know how they feel.
  • Quality advice
    Carers UK provides high quality advice and information to carers and the professionals who support carers. Our expertise comes from years of experience of dealing with the problems carers face. This is available through our website, booklets/ factsheets, local branches, nation offices and through our national telephone Adviceline.
  • Reaching out to carers
    Twice a year, every year for the last decade, Carers UK is the driving force behind national awareness campaigns. Carers Week in June involves over 12,000 events. Every December Carers UK holds Carers Rights Day to make sure carers understand about their entitlements to benefits and how to get help.

Carers UK campaigns to make life better for carers

  • Fighting for the changes carers need
    Our campaigns are based on what carers tell us they need to improve their lives. Carers tell us about the anger and frustration they feel at the constant battles to get even the bare minimum of help. This is what drives Carers UK. Our goals are suitably ambitious. We want to : 
    • end poverty for carers through a radical transformation of the tax and benefit system
    • create a health and social care system that offers early back up and support so carers don't struggle alone
    • make it posisible to combine paid work and caring so people no longer have to choose between their career and the people they love.
  • Securing rights and entitlements
    Our charity was set up by carers back in the 1960s when caring was an unrecognised problem. As society has changed so has Carers UK - promoting caring as one of the key social issues for the 21st century. Carers UK was responsible for the first ever
    • legal recognition of carers
    • benefit payments for carers
    • local support services for carers
    • workplace and employment rights for carers.

We are proud of our achievements but angry that there is still so much that needs to change.

  • Influencing through the media
    Carers UK uses the media to reach thousands of carers and increase public understanding about caring. When our members tell their stories other carers know they are not alone. We help journalists find stories that illustrate the impact of caring on people’s lives. Each year we create millions of opportunities for people to see, read or hear about the issues facing carers and where to get help. We have worked with the major news outlets like Sky, ITV and BBC News; BBC and independent local radio as well as newspapers like the Daily Mirror, Daily Mail, Daily Express, The Times and The Guardian.

Carers UK  influences policy makers, employers and service providers, to help them improve carers' lives.

  • Research based on carers' real life experiences
    We work directly with carers to find out how caring impacts on their lives and to find solutions to the problems they face. It was Carers UK who made sure we know how many carers there are in the UK (6 million) and how much they save the economy (£87 billion). Our work is influential because it is authorative and evidence based.
  • Training and helping professionals who work with carers by sharing our knowledge and expertise
    Carers UK provides training and consultancy that has helped thousands of health and social care professionals provide the very best support to carers. We have helped companies like BT and Centrica develop flexible working which enable their employees with caring responsibilities juggle work and care. Our trainers are recognised experts who are able to draw on Carers UK’s knowledge of the law, policy and best practice.
  • Shaping policy
    Carers UK is making sure carers are at the heart of debates on areas such as work, pensions and health and social care provision. Carers UK works with elected representatives across all political parties and in all four legislatures to help them understand the issues facing carers.
  • Setting the agenda and leading the carers’ movement
    Carers UK’s success relies on our ability to mobilise a growing number of supporters. By working in partnership, we harness the expertise of other organisations who can help to improve carers’ lives and means we are able to punch above our weight. We have set up partnerhips across Europe and throughout the world to lead a growing international response to caring, now firmly a global issue.