The Carers Trust have been awarded £3.45 million funding from the Covid-19 Support Fund to boost support for over 13,500 unpaid family carers.

The programme, Making Carers Count, will support unpaid carers from community groups which, until now, have received little support for their caring roles.

Carers Trust have found that many unpaid carers have encountered barriers to accessing support due to being LGBTQ+, from an ethnic minority community or young.  The Making Carers Count programme will help provide the support for these under-represented carers. 

The funding will be used by Carers Trust to support 25 local carer services to deliver targeted project activities in their local areas until end March and will support approximately 13,500 unpaid carers.

Welcoming the Making Carers Count awards to the 25 local carer services, as well as the start of project delivery, Carers Trust’s Head of Grants and Programmes, Trisha Thompson, said:

For too long, far too many unpaid family carers have struggled, unrecognised and unsupported, to provide essential care and support for their loved ones. This investment will be a game-changer for the lives of 13,500 carers and all those they care for. It means that Carers Trust and front line carers services will have far more capacity to identify, support and involve carers from those under-represented communities so they can access the appropriate carer support they so desperately need if they are to carry on caring for their loved ones, both now and long after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Image credit: Carers Trust