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Carers at the heart of 21st century families and communities: a caring system on your side, a life of your own

  • Document type:
    Guidance
  • Author:
    Department of Health
  • Published date:
    10 June 2008
  • Product number:
    286149 (full document) 288567 (summary)
  • Gateway reference:
    9971
  • Pages:
    168
  • Copyright holder:
    Crown

The carers' strategy sets out the Government's short-term agenda and long-term vision for the future care and support of carers

The carers' strategy is underpinned by £255 million to implement some immediate steps alongside with medium and long-term plans.

New commitments in the carers’ strategy include: £150 million towards planned short breaks for carers; £38 million towards supporting carers to enter or re-enter the job market and £6 million towards improving support for young carers. Other schemes include the piloting of annual health checks for carers to help them stay well and training for GPs to recognise and support carers.   A more integrated and personalised support service for carers will be offered through easily accessible information, targeted training for key professionals to support carers, and pilots to examine how the NHS can better support carers.

30 June 2010: Two new surveys on carers from the NHS Information Centre for health and social care (NHS IC)

Carers in Households - 2009/10 England contains provisional results of a survey DH commissioned to:

  • establish the prevalence of caring in England
  • examine trends in the characteristics of carers (age, sex, etc)
  • examine trends in the intensity and nature of caring
  • investigate the impact of caring on carers
  • investigate support for carers and the

The survey found that 12% of people over 16 were caring for a sick, disabled or older person.  This equates to 5 million carers in England.

Personal Social Services Survey of Adult Carers in England 2009-10 was a survey of carers’ experience of social services or health services.  The survey seeks the views of carers on a range of issues and their views on the services and support they receive from health and social services.

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