Equal-Works

Background

The highly successful Action for Carers and Employment - ACE National - partnership led by Carers UK carried out ground breaking work in supporting the inclusion of carers in training and work, funded by the European Social Fund's Equal Community Initiative Programme.

The UK's six million carers look after partners, relatives or friends in need of help because they are ill, frail or have a disability. Carers give so much to society yet as a consequence of caring, they experience ill health, poverty and discrimination.

Three million of the six million carers in the UK currently juggle work and care-this means that one in seven people in the workforce is a carer. If carers are to continue to carry the lion's share of care whilst remaining active in the labour market, it is critical that there are good services to support them.

ACE National’s focus from 2005-2007 was to explore the factors that influence why, how and if carers access alternative care services that enable them to work and use delivery partnerships to identify and enhance exisiting care services, and developed and tested new care services, which enable carers to work.

The ACE National partnership also supported the participation of carers in planning the development and delivery of care service provision notably through Equal Partners. ACE also developed a national policy partnership that used the lessons of the research and delivery partnerships to influence long term development and investment in the health and social care sector and wider cross cutting policy reform.

Aims
The main aim was to influence and inform key public, private and not-for-profit social care service providers and key policy stakeholders such as government departments, regulatory bodies and trade unions.

To test out innovation in social care delivery looking at services that "work around work" and is campaigning for the establishment of a National Care Strategy that will result in long term development and investment in the social care sector.

Objectives

ACE National’s objectives were to:

• Build an evidence base on the factors that influence why, how and if carers access alternative care services that enable them to work.
• Use delivery partnerships to identify and enhance existing care services, and develop and test new care services, which enable carers to work
• Support the participation of carers in planning the development and delivery of care service provision.
• Use the lessons of the research and delivery partnerships to influence long term development and investment in the health and social care sector, including working to establish a National Care Strategy (work being incorporated in the Prime Minister’s 2007-8 review of the National Strategy for Carers and the government’s Green Paper on Social Care).

Target Groups

Carers, employers

ACE (2002-2005) addressed the barriers faced by carers who want to work, testing support such as pre-vocational training, tailored advice and guidance, targeted support services from mainstream employment services such as Jobcentre Plus and the promotion of carer-friendly policies and practices in the workplace.

ACE National’s focus from 2005-2007 was to explore the factors that influence why, how and if carers access alternative care services that enable them to work and use delivery partnerships to identify and enhance exisiting care services, and develop and test new care services, which enable carers to work.

The ACE Partnership was developed to raise awareness of the barriers facing carers who want to work, and to test the mechanisms that can support them in combining work and care. ACE was designed to support the mainstreaming of effective support for carers of working age, and the development of services which enable carers to work, with an emphasis on policy changes and reform.

The ACE Partnership included central government departments which were seen as critical to the carers and employment agenda, and other key stakeholders who could inform and drive the process of policy and legislative change.

Significant policy gains - with ACE playing a key role in capacity building informing or leading included:

The Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004 which for the first time placed a duty on local authorities to consider a carer's aspirations with regards to access to work, learning or leisure when carrying out care assessments. ACE resourced Carer's UK's work supporting the passage of this legislation ( which began as a Private Members Bill) through its parliamentary stages.

To support implementation of the new legislation,  ACE produced a Resource Pack for local authorities.

ACE developed and rolled out a training package for professionals to support implementation of the Act.