 | |
| Formation | 1988 |
|---|---|
| Type | Charity |
| Purpose | Supporting carers and improving carer rights |
| Headquarters | London SE1 4LX |
Area served | United Kingdom |
Key people |
|
| Website | https://www.carersuk.org/ |
Carers UK is the main membership charity in the United Kingdom for carers. It was formed by the merger of two existing voluntary organisations on 14 May 1988. Originally constituted as Carers National Association, it was renamed Carers UK in 2001.
Carers UK provides information to carers and leads campaigns to improve carers' rights and tackle inequality. It has been instrumental in securing the first ever legal rights for carers. [1] These include :
Carers UK organises Carers Rights Day, produces leaflets and a magazine, and has a free carers helpline. The registered address is 20 Great Dover Street, London, SE1 4LX.
Carers UK is a Trustee-led organisation, with a membership of approximately 45,000 individual members. Members at the AGM approve the appointment of the Trustees who must always be a majority of carers.
Carers UK operates out of four major UK cities - London (Headquarters), Glasgow, Belfast, and Cardiff. National committees exist in the devolved countries with some degree of autonomy to formulate local responses to the national devolved assemblies and their policy processes.
In January 1963, the Reverend Mary Webster wrote letter to The Times concerning the difficulties that confronted single women facing the complex task of earning the family living and caring for the home, the sick and the elderly. Her letters to newspapers, journals, MPs and peers drew attention to the isolation and financial hardship that women carers were suffering, and generated a huge response from hundreds of women in similar situations. [2]
As a result of Webster's efforts, the National Council for the Single Woman and her Dependants was formed in 1965. Baroness Seear was an early supporter. Due to her intervention, a meeting was held in the Grand Committee Room of the House of Commons. Other early supporters and fundraisers included Sir Keith Joseph, MP.
The NCSWD was instrumental in securing the first ever right for carers in the Dependant Tax Allowance in 1967 as well as contributing towards the campaign to introduce Attendance Allowance, the benefit for people aged over 65, as well as securing Invalid Care Allowance, later renamed Carer's Allowance which is still the main benefit for carers today. [3]
In 1981, Judith Oliver, a carer for her husband, founded the Association of Carers, aided by a grant of £9,879 from the Equal Opportunities Commission. The group campaigned for Invalid Care Allowance to be extended to married women. Following a test case brought to the European Court on behalf of Jackie Drake, in June 1986 the government was forced to capitulate. [4]
In 1982, The National Council for the Single Woman and Her Dependants was renamed The National Council for Carers and their Elderly Dependants in an attempt to be more inclusive. Carers National Association was formed by the merger of the two existing voluntary organizations on 14 May 1988, and was renamed Carers UK in 2001.
The Chief Executive is Helen Walker. [5]
Julie Kirkbride is a British Conservative politician. She was the Member of Parliament for the Conservative stronghold of Bromsgrove from the 1997 to the 2010 general elections.
Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent "people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious beliefs" in the United Kingdom by campaigning on issues relating to humanism, secularism, and human rights. It seeks to act as a representative body for non-religious people in the UK.
Eleanor Florence Rathbone was an independent British Member of Parliament (MP) and long-term campaigner for family allowance and for women's rights. She was a member of the noted Rathbone family of Liverpool.
Abortion Rights is an advocacy organisation that promotes access to abortion in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 2003 by the merger of the Abortion Law Reform Association (ALRA) and the National Abortion Campaign (NAC). The ALRA campaigned effectively after World War II for the elimination of legal obstacles to abortion and the peak of its work was the Abortion Act 1967.
Unionism in Scotland is a political movement which favours the continuation of the political union between Scotland and the other countries of the United Kingdom, and hence is opposed to Scottish independence. Scotland is one of four countries of the United Kingdom which has its own devolved government and Scottish Parliament, as well as representation in the UK Parliament. There are many strands of political Unionism in Scotland, some of which have ties to Unionism and Loyalism in Northern Ireland. The two main political parties in the UK — the Conservatives and Labour — both support Scotland remaining part of the UK.
Elizabeth Rowley is the current leader of the Communist Party of Canada. A long-time politician, writer, and political activist, Rowley served as a school trustee in the former Toronto borough of East York. Before becoming leader of the Communist Party of Canada, Rowley was leader of the Communist Party of Ontario. She has been a member of the Central Executive of the Communist Party of Canada since 1978 and has campaigned for office many times at the municipal, federal and provincial levels. Rowley was elected the leader of the Communist Party of Canada by the party's Central Committee in January 2016, following the retirement of Miguel Figueroa. She is the first female leader of the Communist Party of Canada.
Politics in Wales forms a distinctive polity in the wider politics of the United Kingdom, with Wales as one of the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom (UK).
The Scottish Liberal Democrats is a liberal, federalist political party in Scotland, part of UK Liberal Democrats. The party holds 4 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament 6 of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons and 86 0f 1226 Local Councillors.
The Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP) is a youth-led, democratic organisation which aims to represent the young people of Scotland.
Lucy Faithfull, Baroness Faithfull, was a British social worker and children's campaigner. She founded the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, the only nation-wide UK child protection charity working to prevent child sexual abuse.
Social security, in Australia, refers to a system of social welfare payments provided by Australian Government to eligible Australian citizens, permanent residents, and limited international visitors. These payments are almost always administered by Centrelink, a program of Services Australia. In Australia, most payments are means tested.
Beatrice Nancy Seear, Baroness Seear was a British social scientist and politician. She was leader of the Liberal Party in the House of Lords from 1984 to 1988, and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords from 1988 to 1997. She was also appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1985.
Carers' rights are rights of unpaid carers or caregivers to public recognition and assistance in preventing and alleviating problems arising from caring for relatives or friends with disabilities. The carers' rights movement draws attention to issues of low income, social exclusion, damage to mental and physical health identified by research into unpaid caregiving. In social policy and campaigning the movement distinguishes such people's situation from that of paid careworkers, who in most developed countries have the benefit of legal employment protection and rights at work. With an increasingly ageing population in all developed societies, the role of carer has been increasingly recognized as an important one, both functionally and economically. Many organizations which provide support for persons with disabilities have developed various forms of support for carers/caregivers as well.
The Office of theChildren's Commissioner for England is a non-departmental public body in England responsible for promoting and protecting the rights of children as set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as other human rights legislation, such as the Human Rights Act 1998. The Children's Commissioner was established under the Children Act 2004 to "represent the views and interests of children", and the office was further strengthened by the Children and Families Act 2014 providing a legal mandate to promote and protect the rights of children. According to the Commissioner's website, the role's purpose is to facilitate long-term improvements for all children, and in particular for the most vulnerable, and involves “being the eyes and ears of children within the system and the country as a whole", as well as acting with political independence from government, children's agencies and the voluntary and private sectors. The Children's Commissioner also has a duty to speak on behalf of all children in the United Kingdom on non-devolved issues, which include immigration, and youth justice in Wales.
UNICEF UK, also known as the United Kingdom Committee for UNICEF, is one of 36 UNICEF national committees based in industrialised countries. The national committees raise funds for the organisation's worldwide emergency and development work.
The Ramblers' Association, branded simply as the Ramblers, is Great Britain's walking charity. The Ramblers is also a membership organisation with around 100,000 members and a network of volunteers who maintain and protect the path network. The organisation was founded in 1935 and campaigns to keep the British countryside open to all.
Anne Judith Weyman OBE is a British executive. She was Chief Executive of the Family Planning Association from 1996 to 2008 and is a Member of the General Medical Council. She is a trustee of the Galapagos Conservation Trust and vice-chair of Britain for Europe, a group campaigning for continued UK membership of the European Union.
Christian Action, Research and Education (CARE) is a social policy charity based in the United Kingdom, with offices in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Sally Mulready is a British Irish activist and former member of the Irish Council of State. She was one of seven appointees appointed to the Council of State in January 2012 by President Michael D. Higgins. Mulready was the only President's nominee on the Council of State who did not live in Ireland. She was appointed by the President due to her many decades of work for the Irish community in Britain. The Irish Times of 21 January 2012 published an article about Mulready headlined "The President's emigrant".
Versus Arthritis is the United Kingdom's largest charity dedicated to supporting people with arthritis. It was launched in 2018, following the legal merger of the country's two leading arthritis charities, Arthritis Research UK and Arthritis Care in 2017.