The National Carers Strategy

Help us to make it work

The National Carers Strategy is a plan for carers.

It has 5 main things that will be done to help carers.

We want to know your ideas for how we can do these things in the best way for carers.

Easy read

What this booklet is about

We are the Department of Health.  We are part of the government.

We want to find out your ideas about how to make the Carers Strategy work well.

The strategy is a plan to help carers.

A carer is someone who looks after and supports a family member or close friend who has a disability.

For example
Helping someone with everyday things like 
•	getting washed and dressed
•	cooking
•	eating 
•	going out and so on.

A carer may also be supporting someone who has lots of health problems and needs to be looked after all day every day.

The strategy has 5 main things that we want to do to support carers.
You can read about them on the next few pages.

The 5 main things we want to do to help carers

Carers to have respect and support from services

We want carers to be respected as people who know a lot about the person they care for.
Carers can really help with planning and making choices for people.

We want carers to have the services they need to support them.
We want these services to be linked up and meet the needs of each person.  This is called being person centred.

Carers to have their own life

We want carers to have their own life.

For example, the chance to go out and do things they enjoy and know the person they care for is being well looked after.

Carers to have enough money

Often people who are carers find it really hard to keep their job because looking after someone takes up all their time.

We want to make sure that not having much money does not stop carers from having a decent life.

Carers to stay well

We want carers to have the support they need to stay physically and mentally well.

We want carers to be treated with dignity by health care services.

Children and young people who are carers

There are a lot of children and young people who are caring for someone in their family who is very ill or has a disability.  This is often 1 or both of their parents.

We want to make sure that children and young people who are carers

•	get the right support to help them as carers so they do not have to do things like lots of personal care for a parent

•	get the right support so they can learn and do well at school

•	have the same chance as their friends to have fun and enjoy being a child.

We need your ideas

We are asking lots of people for their ideas about how we can make the 5 things work well for carers.

We want to know what you think.

On the next few pages there are some questions we would like you to give us your ideas about.

You can give us your ideas for 
•	all the 5 mains things
•	some of them
Or 
•	just fill in the box at the end.

When you have filled the form in you can email or post it to us

Email carersevidence@dh.gsi.gov.uk 

Carers Evidence
Carers Strategy Team, Department of Health
Area 116, First Floor
Wellington House
133-155 Waterloo Road
London SE1 8UG

Send the form back to us by September 20th 2010.

My ideas for making the Carers Strategy work well

My name	
How to contact me

Please circle which one is right for you
I am 
•	A carer
•	Cared for by someone in my family
•	Replying on behalf of a group	
Address

Phone

Email

Can we pass on what you tell us to other parts of the government?

Yes               No

Can we use your ideas in a report that we will make?   Anyone will be able to read this report.

Yes              No

Carers to have respect and support from services

We want carers to be respected as people who know a lot about the person they care for.
Carers can really help with planning and making choices for people.

We want carers to have the services they need to support them.
We want these services to be linked up and person centred.
	
My ideas for how this could work well are

	
Carers to have their own life

We want carers to have their own life.

For example, the chance to go out and do things they enjoy and know the person they care for is being well looked after.
	
My ideas for how this could work well are

	
Carers to have enough money

Often people who are carers find it really hard to keep their job because looking after someone takes up all their time.

We want to make sure that not having much money does not stop carers from having a decent life.
	
My ideas for how this could work well are

	
Carers to stay well

We want carers to have the support they need to stay physically and mentally well.

We want carers to be treated with dignity by health care services.
	
My ideas for how this could work well are

	
Children and young people who are carers

We want to make sure that children and young people who are carers

•	get the right support to help them as carers so they do not have to do things like lots of personal care for a parent

•	get the right support so they can learn and do well at school

•	have the same chance as their friends to have fun and enjoy being a child.
	
My ideas for making this work well are

	

Other things I want to tell you about making life better for carers

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