About carers

Many carers do not consider themselves to be a carer when they are just looking after a parent, spouse, child or friend, just getting on with it and doing what anyone else would in the same situation.

Anyone can become a carer; carers come from all backgrounds, ages and ethnic groups and can be men, women or children.

Within the Lincolnshire Carers Partnerships the definition of a carer is:

‘anyone who spends a significant proportion of their life providing unpaid care and support to any other person: a relative, partner, child or friend who is ill, frail, disabled or has mental health or alcohol substance misuse problems or HIV/AIDS’.

A carer in receipt of Carers Allowance is still considered to be an unpaid carer.

There are an estimated 6 Million Carers in the UK, which equates to roughly 1 in 10 of the population. Every day around a further six thousand people take on a new caring responsibility; often described as ‘the unpaid job’.

Without these carers, the NHS and social care bill could more than double: the latest research puts the value of unpaid support at £87billion a year. As life expectancy increases the number of people caring could double in the next 40 years; meaning many people of all ages may eventually become carers.

Locally there are 66,000 carers in Lincolnshire (2001 census) – this is almost 10% of the population. 25% of these are caring for 50 hours or more per week, this equates to just over 16,500 carers.

Carers have been identified within the Local Area Agreement (LAA) for Lincolnshire (2008 to 2011) as a priority through the national carer’s indicator (NI 135). This will help to raise the profile of carers locally and sustain the concept that supporting carers is everybody’s business not just health and social care services.