A missed opportunity to support dementia carers

Yet again the opportunity to take the urgent action needed to fix social care has been missed. This will not just be a bitter blow for dementia carers across the UK, but ignores the possibility of potential savings to health and other frontline services. These are all too often impacted by avoidable emergency health interventions and carers reaching crisis.

The Chancellor outlined plans to support people to return to work, but this denies the reality of thousands of unpaid carers who have either been forced to cut back on their working hours or to leave work entirely as a result of their caring responsibilities.

In our recent survey, 36% of dementia carers told us they are caring for 24 hours a day; some are unable to leave the person they care for. It is not straight forward for these carers to return to work, not least as many do not earn enough to pay for alternative care arrangements that would be needed to enable them to leave the person they are caring for.

As the impact of 24/7 caring takes its toll on the physical and mental health of carers, pressures on health and social care services will keep growing. There will be a double whammy of dementia carers and those they are caring for becoming reliant on services which are already overstretched and under-resourced. Ring-fenced investment now in social care could mitigate against this. Ignoring the social care crisis is simply storing up far greater problems for the future. Frances Lawrence, CEO, Dementia Carers Count