To continue to provide our vital support to carers through our criteria-free Carer Project.
by Annabella Crawford in Eastleigh, England, United Kingdom
We’re a small branch of Citizens Advice and have been supporting our community through some of life’s most difficult challenges since 1942. We help, no matter what the problem, whether it be issues such as low income, debt, bad employers or poor housing - and we’re good at it too. We helped with over 14,000 issues last year, mostly related to the cost-of-living-crisis and raised over £2,000,000 of income for our clients. Operating 4 days a week, plus 2 community outreach projects and creating a community hub with other complementary organisations, we’re working flat-out to meet the needs of our community.
Here at Citizens Advice Eastleigh we are receiving more enquiries on behalf of others than ever before and through this have begun to appreciate the lack of services for carers here in our Borough. In the 2021 census nearly 5,000 Eastleigh residents indicated that they were caring for another person for 20+ hours a week. Carers provide a hugely unappreciated amount of unpaid, informal care in our community and we think there is an opportunity to improve our offer to this group specifically. Lack of support for carers has become an escalating problem over the past few years, but especially after the pandemic and now with the extra pressures from the cost-of-living-crisis. We are regularly told by carers that they are unaware of how to access any support or where to go for help and the local organisations set up to support this group do not currently offer any support other than websites and phone lines to the people of Eastleigh. We believe they deserve better, particularly as they often put their own needs aside to focus on their caring responsibilities.
At the moment there is very little support offered in our local community for carers. Services operating Eastleigh have been slow to start up again post-covid and we are well-placed to reach out to this group through our already developed networks.
With our pilot funding, we set up dedicated referral channels for partners and used targeted advertising to ensure this group reach out to our free, confidential and impartial advice service, together with reinforced stakeholder relationships ensuring that carers are being actively signposted to us. By referring to us early on, we can ensure that vital action is taken swiftly and improve well-being, ensuring that carers stay well and care for longer, alleviating pressure on themselves and key statutory services.
This project is nearly a year old and we are now seeking funding to take it beyond the pilot stage.
In the first 6 months of the project we worked with 73 carers (only 8 of whom were under 50), assisted with over 100 issues of poor income and debt, and raised £27,470 in income for them by supporting them to access the help that was out there for them but that they never knew was there.
We’ve made a great start and developed the connections and relationships we need, so now we are seeking support to continue to help this often overlooked (and over-worked) group. Going forward, we hope to increase referrals in to the project from local partners and funding will also assist with more overt marketing to residents in our Borough.
With a CEO and Project Officer who have both spent many years as carers themselves, we are passionate about providing the support to carers that they so desperately need, ensuring that the person they are caring for continues to live independently, reducing the strain on NHS services and the council services in regards to emergency housing and care funding from the government.
Can you help us?