1. Carers in Hertfordshire
Carer’s Rights
Su Bartlett – Development Worker, Drug and Alcohol

2. Who is a carer?
• A neighbour pops in to check their elderly friend has a hot
meal once a week
• A teenager checks that their mother has taken her
medication
• A spouse supports their partner through a home detox
• A married daughter takes her parent to a hospital
appointment
• An employee helps a client get up in the morning
• A parent worries continually about how they can help
their drug using adult child
• Someone helps out with heavy work in the garden and is
paid a minimal amount
• A parent takes their child to school
• A spouse gets up 4 times a night to help their partner go to
the loo

3. What is a carer?
“You are a carer if you provide support to a
partner, child, relative or neighbour who could
not manage without your help. This could be
due to age, physical or mental illness, substance
misuse or disability.”

4. What do you know about carers?
How many carers are there in the UK?
500,000
3.5m
6m
10m
How many employees are also carers?
5%
10%
12%
15%
30%
What is the split between male and female
carers?
50:50
60:40
40:60
30:70
20:80

5. What do you know about carers?
How many carers give up employment to care?
1 in 3
1 in 5
1 in 10
1 in 20
How many Young Carers (under the age of 18)
are there in the UK?
25,000
100,000
175,000
300,000
How many carers say that caring has damaged
their health?
30%
40%
50%
70%
80%

6. Some statistics
• There are almost seven million carers in the
UK – that is one in ten people. This is rising.
• Every year in the UK, over 2.3 million adults
become carers and over 2.3 million adults
stop being carers.
• Three in five people will be carers at some
point in their lives in the UK.
• Out of the UK’s carers, 42% of carers are
men and 58% are women.
• The economic value of the contribution
made by carers in the UK is £119bn per
year.
• Over the next 30 years, the number of
carers will increase by 3.4 million (around
60%).
• The number of people over 85 in the
UK, the age group most likely to need
care, is expected to increase by over 50% to
1.9 million over the next decade.

7. Young carers and
young adult carers
13,000 of the UK’s young carers care for over
50 hours a week.
• Following a survey in 2010, the BBC
estimated that there are 700,000 young
carers in the UK.
• Young adult carers aged between 16 and 18
years are twice as likely to be not in
education, employment, or training (NEET).
• In total there are 290,369 carers in the UK
who are aged 16–24.

8. Carers/families whose lives are affected
by someone else’s drug use or drinking
The UK Drug Policy Commission (UKDPC) study
suggests that around 1.5 million adults in the UK are
affected by a relative’s drug use
Other studies have suggested this number is nearer to
8 million
The UKDPC asserts that families can experience harms
resulting from drug dependence worth £1.8 billion per
year, and
That families provide unpaid care that saves the state
up to £750 million annually
Government estimates that up to 350,000 children are
affected by parental drug use, and up to 1.3 million by
alcohol
Adfam, Challenging Stigma, July 2012

9. What’s the impact?
There is a significant negative impact on:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Physical health
Mental health
Emotional well-being
Financial circumstances
Family relationships, and
Serious impact and long term negative implications on the health
and well-being of children affected by parental substance use
Adfam’s Manifesto for Families, 2010

10. Carer’s Rights
The Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act (1986)
Section 8 says that consideration must be given as to whether a carer is able to
continue to care for that person when assessing a disabled person’s needs.
The NHS and Community Care Act (1990)
This requires councils to involve families and carers when making plans to assist adults
who are vulnerable.
The Carers (Recognition and Services) Act (1995)
Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000
The Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004

11. Between them, these acts:
•Give all carers
the right to have their needs assessed. Carers over 16, including
parent carers of disabled children, are entitled to an assessment in their own right.
•Place a duty on authorities to ensure that all carers know they are entitled to an
assessment of their needs.
•State that carers assessments should always consider a carer’s outside interests
(work, study or leisure) when carrying out an assessment. They should also
promote better joint working between councils and the health service, by giving
local authorities the right to ask for assistance from other authorities in planning
the provision of services for carers.
•Empower local authorities to introduce voucher schemes for carer breaks services
and extend powers of local authorities to provide more specific services for carers.
These carer-specific services, which are not community care services, may be
funded by direct payments to carers. N.B. The vouchers scheme for carers is not a
feature of Scottish provision.
The cared for person can have services, in addition to those they are assessed as
needing in their own right, as a result of the needs of the carer.

12. The Care Bill
Will:
• Consolidate over 30 pieces of statute and numerous pieces of
guidance, regulations and directions
• Make it easier for adults caring for adults to have their own needs for
support considered
• Potentially make paying for care more transparent
• Potentially get crucial advice to families at an earlier stage, with
duties to provide information, advice and preventative services

13. How can you support Carers?

14. Any questions?

15. Further Information
Carers in Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire Carers Centre
The Red House
119 Fore Street
Hertford
SG14 1AX
Tel: 01992 586969
Fax: 01992 586969
www.carersinherts.org.uk
contact@carersinherts.org.uk
www.twitter.com/carersinherts