Abstract
Informal carers are friends and family who carry out the majority of caring tasks in the UK. They are often overlooked when it comes to practice, despite the aspirations of social policy to support carers. The narratives of Christine, Bob and Barbara are all different but share a common theme of their needs being overridden and sometimes ignored altogether. Barbara is able to give a historical perspective of caring for her son, Christopher, from the days of institutionalisation through to community care, finding that her caring role has become respected and valued as practice and policy changed. Christine and Bob, however, largely reflect on their caring roles as having taken a great toll, emotionally, physically and financially. Critique of carers’ policies is that they have largely promised more than they have delivered and that austerity policies are unlikely to re-prioritise carers, despite the many benefits such investment would bring.
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Ransome-Wallis, C., Conner, B., Pugh, B., Unwin, P. (2021). Informal Carers and Caring. In: Sealey, C., Fillingham, J., Unwin, P. (eds) Social Policy, Service Users and Carers. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69876-8_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69876-8_12
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