End of year review 2021
For the majority, 2021 has been the year of social isolation, increased system pressures, low resilience, and burnout. We estimate that 1 in 8 of adults are unpaid carers, with an additional 6000 people taking on caring responsibilities daily. Within our workforce, 1 in 3 people are balancing work with additional caring responsibilities due to a disability, health condition, frailty, mental health problem, addiction or other health and care needs. As a direct result of Covid-19 Carers UK estimates there are around 13.6 million people caring through the pandemic, and that in March 2020 overnight an additional 4.5 million people became unpaid carers overnight.
For the West Yorkshire (HCP) unpaid carers programme, 2021 has been the year to challenge and push boundaries, engage with our communities, and ensure appropriate support is available to meet the diverse and ever-changing needs of the communities we serve. Our primary ambition for the year was to address the existing health inequalities gap widened by the pandemic and encouraging carers to step forward for the Covid 19 vaccination, thereby increasing recognition and support for carers across West Yorkshire & Harrogate.
You can read more about our work this year to support unpaid carers in our end of year review
West Yorkshire and Harrogate has been identified as one of 12 regions to work in partnership with NHS England to develop an approach to better support unpaid carers across our area.
We aspire to be a place where carers are recognised and given the support they need to both manage their caring role and remain in work and education, no matter where they live in West Yorkshire and Harrogate.
There are an estimated 260,000 unpaid carers living in West Yorkshire and Harrogate, including children and young people caring for parents with long-term health conditions. The Caring Behind Closed Door report published October 2020 suggests there could be an additional 4.5 million carers because of Covid-19, 2.8 million of whom are juggling work and care. 81% of carers are now providing more care and many are seeing the needs of the person they care for increase.
On top of this we recognise there is an increased number of vulnerable and high risk carers, including carers with health conditions, carers over 70, carers from ethnic minorities, and young carers. View the programme's response to the Carers UK report 'Caring for Carers'
Many carers are ‘hidden’ and provide the majority of care without formal support. Being a carer can be stressful and have a major impact on your health, relationships, education and employment. With this in mind we are working with NHS England to ensure that identifying carers and supporting them is further embedded within our work. This includes developing ways to support the existing and future workforce who balance caring responsibilities, signposting and identifying service standards for all organisations – not just in the public sector.
West Yorkshire and Harrogate carers resources are being shared nationally. This includes the working carers passport via NHS England and NHS Improvement and e-learning Resources developed specifically for carers developed by Health Education England.