This year's local elections will be taking place on Thursday 7 May across 136 out of 317 councils in England, with 4,850 council seats up for election.
These elections provide us with an opportunity to drive home the importance of how local councils identify, recognise, and support unpaid carers. Whilst we recognise that councils find themselves under pressure, unpaid carers should not be left carrying the weight of these challenges alone.
You can find out if an election is happening in your area here.
Our campaign
We want council candidates up and down the country to understand how vital unpaid carers are to their local communities, and that councils have both a legal and moral obligation to ensure all unpaid carers are identified and supported.
The elections also lead directly into this year's Carers Week, which will be focusing on Building Carer Friendly Communities. With Carers Week taking place just a month after the local elections, we will be asking newly elected councillors how they will deliver on the commitments made to carers.
We have developed three resources to set out our asks of candidates and councils, as well as support you to engage with your candidates and campaign for a better deal for unpaid carers in your local area.
A carers' manifesto
We have developed a manifesto built around five key asks of council candidates, listed below:
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Pledge to support unpaid carers
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Invest in services to support unpaid carers
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Deliver a stronger carers strategy
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Encourage your council to lead by example as a carer friendly employer
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Support and help to build carer friendly communities
We also want this manifesto to act as a tool to help guide your conversations with local council candidates if you live in an area where local elections are taking place. We want to make it clear to all councilors and councils in England that unpaid carers are the backbone of their communities, and deserve to be properly recognised and supported.
Download the manifesto here
As a charity, Carers UK is strictly non-party political and acts within the Charity Commission guidelines. This means we remain balanced and do not advocate for a particular political party or candidate. This guidance and the law also affects local charities, and if you are acting on behalf of a charity you must be mindful of this guidance. Feel free to contact us at [email protected] if you have any questions regarding this guidance.
Resources to help you get involved
Above all else we want the voices of carers to be heard leading up to and beyond the election. We have produced a campaigner pack and social media pack to help support your own engagement.
The campaigner pack provides information on the following:
- Registering to vote and finding out about your candidates
- How to use the manifesto
- Ways you can engage with your local candidates
Our social media pack provides suggested posts for you to use to engage online, as well as spread the word about the campaign and encourage others to get involved.
Registering to vote
The deadline to register to vote is 11.59pm on Monday 20 April, and you can do so here.
If you would like to apply for a postal vote, you can do so after registering, here. The deadline to apply for a postal vote is 5pm on Tuesday 21 April.