Carers Rights Day: recognising your rights
Thursday 21 November was Carers Rights Day. The theme for 2024 was 'recognising your rights' to help empower carers.
A carer is someone (of any age) who provides support to a family member, friend or neighbour who has a disability, illness, mental health condition, addiction or who needs extra help to carry out daily activities as they grow older. Unpaid carers aren’t volunteers or someone who is employed to provide support. These responsibilities develop out of existing loving relationships.
Many unpaid carers don’t see themselves as carers. As such are often unaware of their legal rights and what they’re entitled to in terms of support and benefits.
Facts and figures
- every day 12,000 people across the UK become unpaid carers for a family member or friend
- 3 in 5 carers in Scotland census were working age
- you could already be providing unpaid care or you could become a carer at any time
- the support unpaid carers provide is invaluable to individuals and to society
- the value of unpaid care in Scotland is estimated to be £13.1 billion per year
- research by Carers Scotland found that the poverty rate for carers is 56% higher than for those without caring responsibilities
- approximately 3% of carers currently access short breaks through an assessed route
- the Scottish Health and Care Experience survey reveal that 2% of unpaid carers receive personal support to enable them to have breaks from caring
Recognising Carers Rights
This year’s theme, ‘recognising your rights’, aims to help carers recognise and understand their rights and to access the support available to them when they need it.
Knowing your rights as a carer can give you confidence to ask for what you need and challenge when your needs are not being met, whether in relation to health and social care, being recognised by other professionals, being meaningfully involved in your support or that of the person you care for, education, or in the workplace.
What rights do carers have?
Carers have the right to:
Access a local advice and information service
Your local advice and information service for adults is Carers of East Lothian, based at the community hospital in Haddington. Young carers (under the age of 18) can get advice and information from East Lothian Council's Young Carers service.
Request an Adult Carer Support Plan (ACSP)
Adult Carer Support Plans are usually completed with support from Carers of East Lothian who will help you think about the impact of caring, what really matters to you and what support you could have in place that would make a difference to your individual situation.
Request a Young Carer Statement (YCS)
Young Carers Statements are completed with support from our Young Carers Service. Similar to the Adult Support Plan, they identify ways young carers can be supported in their daily lives to help with their caring responsibilities. Young Carers can register with the Council service by completing a brief questionnaire on the website: eastlothian.gov.uk/young-carers
Access support if they have eligible needs
Your adult carer support plan might identify needs that cannot be met by universal supports, if this is the case you can share your assessment with ELHSCP and access funded supports if you meet local eligibility criteria, see your local carers eligibility criteria here
Be consulted on services for them or the person they’re caring for
You should have the chance to have your say on your own support or the support for the person you care for, you should be treated as an ‘equal partner in care’.
Be included in hospital discharge planning for the person they are caring for
If the person you care for is admitted to hospital you should be identified as early as possible and included in the discharge planning for the person you care for. Carer of East Lothian work closely with ELCH to support carers of people in hospital.
- up to five days unpaid leave to better balance work with caring responsibilities
- the Carers Leave Act came into effect in 2024. This law enables carers to gain access to specific employment rights regarding taking time off work. Employees who are carers are able to take up to five days unpaid leave to better balance work with caring responsibilities. This can be taken flexibly, in small amounts to attend appointments for example, or in half days, full days, or a whole block of five days. Speak to your employer about how they can support you at work
Unpaid carers across Scotland granted new employment rights as groundbreaking Carer’s Leave Act comes into force. | Carers UK
Find out more about support for carers and Carers Week at Carers UK website.