State of Caring Carers UK State of Caring 2017 Report | Page 9

STATE OF CARING REPORT 2017
Time for a break
Since the ground-breaking decision in 1999 to
deliver carers’ breaks funding to local authorities,
government has continued to identify funding for
carers’ breaks which is welcome. Breaks are vital
for carers to be able to deal with the physical and
emotional strain of providing care and to support
them to be able to continue in their roles. However,
disappointingly, carers often report not receiving the
support they need to take even a short break.
A quarter
25 %
said they hadn’t had a day off
from caring for more than five years
Transparency about how much breaks funding is
allocated to providing carers’ breaks at a local level
and how this is spent remains an issue.
We asked carers when they last took a break from
caring. Shockingly, many carers report not having a
break for years. A quarter of people (25%) said they
hadn’t had a day off from caring for more than five
years, while 4 out of 10 carers (40%) said they hadn’t
had a day off for more than a year. Having more than
a day was still rarer, with over half of carers (58%)
reporting not having had a weekend off in over a year
and as many as 73% not having had a week off for
over a year.
4 out of 10
40 %
said they hadn’t had a day off
from caring for more than a year
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