ACE National

Innovating through EQUAL to Achieve Change for Carers

Who are our beneficiaries?• The UK’s 6 million carers look after family,

partners or friends in need of help because they are ill, frail or have a disability. The care they provide is unpaid

• Carers save the UK’s health and social care services £56 billion a year – the equivalent of a second National Health Service

Key issues • Over the next 20 years, the UK economy will

need an extra 2 million workers, and UK society will need an extra 3 million carers

• The economy will need people to work longer, at exactly the time that they are likely to be caring

• The economy cannot afford people not to work, or people not to care

Key objectives – ACE National

• To raise awareness in the widest possible forum of the barriers facing carers who want to work

• To develop and test the mechanisms that can support carers to return to, or remain in, work

• To mainstream support and have the greatest possible impact on local and national policy on carers and work

Project design• Lead partner - Carers UK

– national lobbying and campaigning organisation of and for carers

• Local pilot sites working directly with beneficiaries

• A national policy partnership, designed to achieve maximum mainstreaming and long-term policy change

Key mainstreaming outcomes 1

• Learning for Living– pre-vocational training programme for carers

• Training resources to develop and mainstream good practice for:– local authorities– employers – working carers– unions– Jobcentre Plus

Key mainstreaming outcomes 2

• Research reports:– We Care – Do You?– Who Cares Wins - the Social and Business

Benefits of Supporting Carers in the Workplace

• Carers and their Rights – the Law Relating to Carers

Key mainstreaming outcomes 3

• Employers for Carers – website– benchmarking tool– case studies

• Employer of the Year Awards– Carers Award

Key mainstreaming outcomes 4

• Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004– support to access work, learning and leisure

• Work and Families Act 2006– right to request flexible working

• All Party Parliamentary Group on Carers• Equal Opportunities Commission Parents and

Carers Coalition

Key mainstreaming outcomes 5

• Government White Paper Our Health, Our Care, Our Say– A New Deal for Carers

• Government Pensions White Paper• Government Welfare Reform White Paper

What did ESF add?

• Capacity– capitalising on strengths of partners to

extend activity • Support for innovation

– identifying and testing new ways of working• Support for mainstreaming

– transforming policy and practice to achieve long term change

How to find out more

• Find out more about ACE National at:

– www.acecarers.org.uk

– www.eupolitix.com/EN/Forums

• Find out more about Carers UK at:

– www.carersuk.org