Carers Strategy Petition

Carers were asked to contribute to a call for evidence for a Carers Strategy in early 2016. Many carers and carers organisations filled in the questionnaire and wrote reports on the issues for carers and how to solve them.

Katy Styles, Rosie Duffield MP and Judy Keay at MNDA Parliamentary Reception

Everyone expected the Carers Strategy to be published at the end of 2016. We waited throughout 2017. An election happened. The Minister changed. We continued to wait. By October I decided that I needed to do something to get government talking about the Carers Strategy again. I was quoted twice in parliament as being very annoyed that carers were still waiting and our voices were unheard. The Minister then made an announcement in November that there would be an Action Plan. That Action Plan was due in January. It never came. We were on our next Minister.

I created a petition on the Government’s own petition website to get Government to publish the Carers Strategy. I even took an online course with UK Parliament to learn how to do this. My petition went up on the website on 22nd January. It runs for 6 months. To get a response from Government I need 10,000 signatures. To get a debate I need 100,000 signatures. But no matter how many signatures this petition attracts it has got people discussing carers and the lack of a properly thought through strategy.

So far Kent Carer Support Organisations have supported this petition through their networks, as have many other carers organisations throughout the country.

Have your say

MPs have shared the petition on social media and there have been messages of support and encouragement.

Why did I do this? As someone who meets many carers it struck me how few knew their rights, few identified themselves as carers and few were claiming benefits they were entitled to. A proper strategy should address these issues.

If you feel you can support this, please click on the link and sign up and share. Thank you.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/209717

Katy Styles – Carer, MNDA Trustee and MNDA East Kent

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