Presentation used at the Action For Carers Forum in May 2012

1. Carers and National
Government – influencing and
changing decisions
24th May 2012

2. Who is Carers UK
Carers UK is:
• Organisation of carers, run by carers for
carers
• Started in 1965 by carers
• Carers always involved in getting
change from Government
• Carers UK working in partnership with
organisations like Action for Carers

3. Carers making a difference

4. Lynda Wisbach
•Talked to us about her situation
•Led to survey of carers about emergencies
•Survey found lack of response
•Lynda became campaign “pin up”
•Presented information and her story to Government
•Did media interviews
•Changed our world - £25 million and a change in
attitude

5. What can you do?
• Letter writing – your situation – asking for
change
• Constituency meetings with MP
• Councillors as well as MPs
• Telling your story
• Contributing to research and surveys
• Using social media

6. Telling your story

7. Telling your story
• Power of the story
• Anonymously
• Publicly
• Helps to understand and to illustrate change
• Your experience sets you apart
• You back up our statistics
• Positive stories of support also change opinion
• MPs like to draw on local experiences in debate

8. Social media making a difference
• Twitter, Facebook, Carers UK’s Carers
Forum
• Carers Forum – over 3,000 users.
Supportive environment. Used for
discussion.
• Facebook – over 7,000 likes
• Twitter – over 9,300 followers
• You Tube – brings public into carers lives

9. Social media and carers

10. Social media
• Brought ordinary carers to the centre of
attention – Rosemary O’Neill from Carer
Watch and Carers UK member.
• Facebook – quick discussions on issues
that matter that take the temperature of
discussion.
• Fed into the media, into parliamentary
debates, for lead spokespeople, etc.

11. Social media
• Twitter – who understands it?
• Who has done it?
• Does it make a difference?
• Follow your MP
• Follow Carers UK
• Tweet from this event at #carecantwait
and @Carersuk
• Don’t know where it will all develop

12. Feed
Fundraising
Promoting our
research
Media
Conversation with
professionals and
opinion formers
Campaigns

13. Impact
#CostofCaring (December 2011)
• Carers Rights Day twitter campaign – tweeting
about the financial impact of caring
• Carers UK ‘trended’ as one of the top ten most
talked about topics in the UK.
#CareCantWait (May 2012)
• 1,496 tweets across three days from 670 tweeters
• Reaching 350,000 people

14. Carers message to Government

15. Petitions, letter writing, email
• Petitions – good way to engage
individuals
• Letter writing – the personal story stands
you apart from general mass emails
• Emails too, telling your story is more
powerful
• Councillors make an important
contribution
• MPs get a lot of contact about trees, fish,
the countryside and now pasties

16. What is Carers UK campaigning
on?
• Better funding settlement for social care –
Care and Support Alliance
• Stop the cuts to benefits for carers –
improve them instead – Hardest Hit
campaign
• Health for Carers Week #carersweek

17. Where to look
• @Carersuk
• Facebook – Carers UK
• www.carersuk.org
• www.carewelluk.org