News

The government will this week back a cap on people’s lifetime care costs but will not specify a figure for the cap, nor a timetable for introducing it. A funding reform progress report published on Wednesday will back a costs cap, but any decision on the figure is likely to be delayed until the next government spending review due in late 2013 or 2014.

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When: Thursday 8 November 2012 10am-4pm

Where: The Auditorium, Clifford Chance, 10 Upper Bank Street, Canary Wharf, London E15 5JJ

This event takes place each year and is open to all carers and former carers regardless of membership of Carers UK.

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Carers UK’s Head of Innovation Madeleine Starr MBE examines the future of care and support services and asks whether a ‘care economy’ could help us grow our way out of recession. 

‘Demographic timebomb’, ‘silver tsunami’, ‘agequake’ – all are terms used to describe the potential impact of our ageing and disabled population, and all suggest imminent Armageddon. Is this really how we see the dual good news story that people are living longer and living better with disability?  Surely it’s not the medical advances that enable young people with cystic fibrosis to live into adulthood that are the challenge for our modern times? No, it’s finding the right societal response to give older and disabled people, their families and carers a proper quality of life.

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Over a third (34%) of the UK’s homecare providers responding to a national survey, have raised the alarm over risks to the dignity or safety of the care that local councils require them to undertake for older and disabled people.

The findings come in a report, “Care is not a Commodity”, published today, by the sector’s professional body, the United Kingdom Homecare Association (UKHCA).

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Speaking at the launch of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Dementia’s report, Care Services minister Paul Burstow agrees that regional variation is a crucial issue to overcome in order to achieve more effective diagnosis of dementia onset.

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Sarah Lambert, Head of Policy at The National Autistic Society (NAS) and co-writer of the 50th birthday report: ‘The Way We Are: Autism in 2012’.

To mark our 50th birthday, The National Autistic Society commissioned the largest ever survey into autism, in order to show what life is like in the UK for people affected by the condition.  Covering the wide range of autism experiences from diagnosis and employment to school and independent living, the survey  informed a major new report from the charity,  ‘The Way We Are: Autism in 2012’.

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Many patients face “shocking” delays for dementia diagnosis and treatment, according to a report by MPs and peers.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Dementia says GPs are often seen as barriers to a diagnosis.

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The Olympic Flame is finally here and is travelling its way around the country being carried by 8,000 inspirational torchbearers. 

It’s been to the highest point in Snowdon, all the way up to the Scottish Highlands, and all the way down to the Isle of Wight.

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On Sunday more than 1000 young carers attempted to smash a world record as they celebrated the launch of a major four-year programme to significantly improve help and support for young carers across England.

The world record, for the most people wearing paper hats, was attempted at the end of the three-day national Young Carers Festival (29 June – 1 July). The previous record stood at 390.

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Of Britain’s 6 million carers, one in five have left full-time employment to look after an ailing relative

In 2009 Paula Knight was an assistant marketing director for PricewaterhouseCoopers in London. In her early 40s, Knight’s life was carefree. But during a two-week holiday to New York she took a call from her mother: her dad was in hospital having suffered a stroke. From her mum’s voice she could sense something else was wrong – her mother’s mental illness, paranoid schizophrenia, had returned. Knight had to cut short her holiday and, as it would turn out, her career.

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