Carers Rights Day taking place on November 23 this year offers a vital opportunity to connect unpaid carers to essential support and ensure more carers know about their rights and entitlements.  

Carers’ Hub will be marking the day with an event for young and adult carers registered with our service. Carers often tell us it is hard to know what support is out there, therefore we have invited fellow Lambeth based organisations to join us to speak directly to carers about their offer. Organisations include Adult Social Care at the London Borough of Lambeth,  Age UK Lambeth, Contact, Lambeth Talking Therapies, Healthwatch Lambeth, Spiral Skills and more. Lambeth Public Health will also be hosting a Flu and Covid 19 vaccination clinic for eligible carers at the event.  

Polly Howes, Carers Strategy Manager at Carers’ Hub said: A major barrier to carers accessing support is that many do not even recognise that they are a carer. They are simply doing what you do as a mate, a loved one, a family member. This means that carers are too often missing out on essential information, support and entitlements. It is vital more people are helped to identify themselves as unpaid carers, and find out what help is available. As Carers Rights Day approaches, we are asking community members and local professionals to reach out to people in their networks who may be looking after someone, to check in about whether they know what is available for unpaid carers.

This Carers Rights Day, please help by sharing  

• Our Top Tips for Carers – which includes signposting information and advice for carers to check if they are entitled to Carers Allowance, ensure their GP knows they are a carer, ask for a Carers Assessment and connect carers to local support  

• Information of support on offer from Carers´ Hub Lambeth
• News of the rights and entitlements open to carers and helpful signposting from Carers UK  

Carers’ Hub Lambeth 

Local charity Carers’ Hub Lambeth supports unpaid carers living in Lambeth or caring for someone who does. Our adult carers team offers tailored 1 to 1 support, information and signposting,  and a monthly programme of groups and activities. We offer specialised peer support groups for mental health carers, substance misuse carers, neurodiversity and learning disability carers, dementia carers and those caring for someone with a long term health condition or physical disability. Our regular activities include mindfulness, a legal clinic, emergency planning workshops, alongside ad hoc social, wellbeing, creative and training opportunities for carers.  

In partnership with MYsocial, a service from Age UK Lambeth, we offer the Lambeth Carers Card for unpaid carers aged 18 plus, which connects carers to emergency planning resources, information and deals at local participating businesses.  

To register or to find out more  please visit www.carershub.org.uk, email connect@carershub.org.uk or call 020 7501 8970.  

Carers’ Hub’s Young Carers team supports young carers aged 5 and up and young adult carers aged 16-21 who care, unpaid, for a friend or family member who has an illness, disability, mental health or drug or alcohol problem. Adventure, friendship and support are super-important for young carers, so we split our work into the following areas: 

• We organise a mixture of exciting activities throughout the year; 
• We run monthly young carers and young adult carers groups – a space to relax, have fun, discuss important topics and hear from local services. 
• We provide a listening ear and relevant help to young carers and  their families; 
• We run dedicated projects working with schools to support young carers with their education. 
• We offer young carers assessments for young carers under the age of 18 

To register with the young carers service, please contact us on youngcarers@carershub.org.uk or call 020 7501 8972. 

Lambeth Carers Strategy

While Carers Rights Day offers an opportunity to shine the spotlight on unpaid carers, it is essetinal that carers´ needs are considered all year round. Here in Lambeth it is important that we make the most of the up and coming Lambeth Carers Strategy, to push for this continued focus and attention.

“We will soon be publishing our Lambeth Carers Strategy 2023-2028, which will outline our commitments to carers in the borough and the key priorities which have emerged through close collaboration with carers and the organisations who support them. The strategy, which was developed with Carers ,seeks to recognise carers ’significant contribution and set the direction for how we want to work together with our communities and partners to support carers in Lambeth. We know that caring can affect individuals ’health, wellbeing, finances, and relationships, but we also know that there is a lot we can do together to respond to some of these challenges.” Josie Brooks, Interim Lead Commissioner, Integrated Commissioning, Adults and Health, London Borough of Lambeth.

Carers UK info can be found here