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30/10/07 -� Social care system is failing four million working age carers
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New research by Carers Scotland and Carers UK highlights the challenges facing health and social care services in the face of demographic change. Care services are failing Britain's four million working age carers (400,000 in Scotland), making it harder or even impossible for them to hold down a job, according to one of the largest in-depth surveys of carers commissioned by Carers Scotland and Carers UK.
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Over 40 per cent of those caring full time and not in work say that they cannot return to employment because of the lack of services available.
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Carers UK's Chief Executive, Imelda Redmond, wants to see a radical overhaul to avoid a demographic and economic disaster.
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"We now have the most detailed evidence to date of the issues facing working carers which can inform a more planned approach for the future", she says. "The Comprehensive Spending Review provides us with an opportunity to set this out and get it right.
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"It is clear that current systems do not support carers at key stages of their lives and this latest in-depth analysis shows that care services are systematically failing working carers.� Carers have reasonable expectations to a life beyond their caring role and we should be fulfilling them."
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The research is led by Professor Sue Yeandle from the University of Leeds who has compiled six major reports on working age carers by Carers Scotland and Carers UK.�
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Key findings were as follows:
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- The majority of working carers say they need at least one type of formal service which they are not currently receiving
- One third of carers in full or part-time work are struggling financially
- Very few working carers are getting breaks, and less than a quarter have access to respite care services
- Only a quarter of working carers feel they have adequate support from formal services to enable them to combine work and care
- Between 40 and 50 per cent of working carers say that a lack of flexibility and sensitivity in the delivery of services is hampering them
- Almost half of those working part-time say that they are only in work of this type because of their caring responsibilities
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The reports are available on the Carers Scotland website www.carerscotland.org/Home�
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