OPINION: 'Unpaid family carers are undervalued', says MP

During my maiden speech in the House of Commons in July, I spoke about my mother, who, for many years, cared for my grandmother, Freda. She suffered serious brain injuries after a car crash, but with the love and support of my mum, she learned to walk and write again, attend church, went on trips to the Dales and ultimately lived another 30 years. I committed to make unpaid family carers like my Mum a priority during my time in parliament.

It is hard to overstate the importance of unpaid family carers.

This care is unpaid, undervalued and done behind closed doors. An estimated 5 million people, the majority women, support loved ones up and down the country every day. In my constituency of Shipley alone, there are over 7,000 people who provide unpaid care for someone with long-term physical or mental health conditions.

This astonishing figure, taken from data published by Bradford Council, is, on the one hand, inspiring. These are individuals willing to care for someone they love. But too often carers have to make personal sacrifices including giving up paid work and sometimes at the detriment of their own health.

I spoke at the unpaid carers debate in Parliament last week, where I commended the passage of the Carers Leave Act 2023, which granted carers a week of unpaid leave each year. I hope the Labour government will go further by making it paid leave to ensure that carers can continue to juggle work and caring responsibilities more easily. Over the last 14 years, people have been badly let down by a social care system that is underfunded and understaffed, putting an ever more significant burden on the millions of unpaid carers across the UK.

A view of Shipley looking up towards the town centre (Image: T&A)

The need for reform is not just pressing. It's urgent. My career has been dedicated to enhancing care and support, and I have witnessed first-hand the desperate need for change. Now, as a newly elected MP, I am determined to elevate this issue to the top of the new government's agenda.

Looking back on how the country got into this situation, each Conservative Prime Minister since 2010 has had a grand plan for solving the social care conundrum. David Cameron made it a key issue in his first manifesto before going on to slash local authority budgets by a quarter by the time he left office. U-turning mid-general election on her “dementia tax” plan was Theresa May’s most substantial contribution to the issue. Boris Johnson said he would: “fix the crisis in social care once and for all” before dropping his plan entirely by the time of the Queen's speech in 2021. Rishi Sunak never got the chance to implement his six-point plan for social care. And honestly, the less said about Liz Truss, the better. Everyday people feel the effects of this chaos and indecisiveness, having to put up with an adult social care system that the Public Accounts Committee described earlier this year as having been brought “to its knees”.

During the general election campaign, I spoke to dozens of residents in Shipley who struggle with accessing the care and support they need to retain independence and control over their own lives. I spoke to many carers who struggle to balance responsibilities as unpaid carers with work and stay above the poverty line.

Most of us don’t tend to think about care until a loved one needs it. We see the cars pulling up outside an older neighbour’s home twice a day, but do we consider what they are doing or, less still, what they are paid?

Paid carers and support workers enable an adult with learning disabilities to access training or a job, support a young adult with autism to go to the shops or cinema, provide the care needed to help a parent of a child with complex needs have a break, or support that someone living with dementia and their carer need to continue to engage in social activities. These services account for a significant share of council spending, including Bradford Council, and much of it is spent on older people in wards like Wharfedale and Baildon where there are higher than average numbers of older people.

Unfortunately, there is no quick fix for the broken social care system. But we can begin to get the country back on track one step at a time.

We must learn from the failures of previous governments. They repeatedly failed to take action to fund and reform social care. They stripped local government finances to the bare bones, leaving people without the care and support they need. They allowed some for-profit providers to get away with ripping off commissioners and exploiting staff. The rest of the country would do well to learn from innovative approaches like those implemented in Bradford District to support a more neighbourhood approach to delivery of home care.

I am proud to be the Member of Parliament for Shipley. I will use my experience in health and social care to push the government to fulfil its commitment to building a National Care Service for the future. We cannot waste this chance to finally ensure there are national standards, to fairly reward care workers, and provide vital support to family carers.