Will the new government care for carers?

Blog posts

23 Jul 2024

Kyla Ellis, Research Officer

Earlier this month, Kier Starmer took on the role of Prime Minister. The same week, although with admittedly less pressure, I started my new role as a Research Officer at IES. Starmer now has the unenviable task of tackling a vast array of challenges whilst under the gaze of a sceptical media and a nation eager for change. For my part, I am watching to see whether this change in government might put my previous specialism (teenage motherhood) back on the agenda.

My interest stems from many years as an academic in higher education (HE) researching young motherhood. Yet as I settle into IES, I am keenly aware of the need to expand from the rather narrow specialisms encouraged within academia. Consequently, I am now thinking more broadly about care, unpaid labour and its relationship to employment and I find myself hopeful. A fresh Labour government committed to change has an opportunity to redefine how we think about care and, in doing so, could address some of the challenges faced not only by teenage parents, but those who care for elderly relatives or those with long term health conditions.  

Teenage mothers face a specific barrier to having their caring responsibilities supported in that their legitimacy to exist at all is often questioned. Teenage parenthood challenges the normative pathway to adulthood and the focus is more often on getting them back on that pathway. This plays out culturally through the kinds of stigmatising language young parents are often subject to, but also through policy.

For instance, the last Labour government’s main avenue of support for young parents was by increasing numbers in education, employment or training. Whilst laudable, this approach also reinforced a social norm for young mothers (to eschew their caring roles) which is out of step with the social norms of wider society, (where women are expected to fulfil caring roles). I am clearly not advocating a return to a period in which women were expected to find complete fulfilment in caring. Nonetheless, care is a vital part of society which remains invisible and undervalued, despite the lip service paid to it in cultural rhetoric. Many people who want to care, are unable to make that choice freely (such as teenage mothers, or men who feel unable to take advantage of flexible working patterns) or are in caring roles but at enormous personal cost. For instance:  

• The mental, emotional, physical and financial toll on unpaid carers.
• The impact of caring on education, mental health and participation in leisure activities experienced by young carers caring for their parents.
• The punitive sums and threats of prosecution imposed on carers when they inadvertently exceed their earning limits (often by relatively paltry sums) whilst claiming carer’s allowance.
• The undervaluing of care as a paid occupation, as evidenced by the struggles to fill vacancies in adult social care and issues with pay and retention in the early years sector.
• The continued undervaluing and invisibility of much of the labour (mental and menial) associated with parenting which too often falls on the shoulders of women regardless of their employment status.

As Matthew McKenzie, a carer and care advocate, eloquently put it recently: “There is an irony that doing what is right in a civilised society is ‘rewarded’ by poverty and food bank use, just for doing the right thing for your family.”

Starmer faces pressing economic imperatives such as insecure work, economic inactivity and poor productivity which are likely to take precedence. There is a need to ensure that measures enacted to address these do not further derogate care. Yet, if considered thoughtfully, attending to care may help Starmer solve some of these labour market challenges.

IES provides evidence and expertise which could be used to support the development of a workplace that incorporates a supportive environment for carers. For instance, the Carers in Employment project evaluation report which points to ways in which carers can be supported to remain in or return to employment. Or, an evidence assessment which unpacks the multiple and complex decisions parents face on combining work with care. IES has also worked with Gingerbread to identify support to return to work, to retrain and work flexibly which would meet the specific needs of single parents. And, more recently, the papers ‘Beyond the Hybrid’ and ‘Flex for All’ which consider how flexible working could be expanded to meet the needs of those who are yet to benefit, such as those in caring roles.

There are reasons to be hopeful. Early signs from Labour signal an encouraging shift in direction with regards workers’ rights which is likely to impact positively on care issues. More focused actions might also follow, for example with the appointment of Stephen Timms to Minister for Social Security and Disabilities, who has been a vocal critic of the handling of the Carer’s Allowance. There is still much more to be done however, such as improving the Carer’s Leave Act. Moreover, some of the issues faced by carers require more than a tinkering around the edges of existing policies. Many carers remain ‘hidden’ because they feel unable to disclose their caring responsibilities and there is still resistance to measures which support carers from some employers.

These issues cannot be addressed by policy alone, a wider shift in culture is desperately needed. Although I started this piece, and indeed my career, concerned with the lives of teenage parents, it is worth remembering that we all shift in and out of the roles of ‘carer’ and ‘cared for’ across our lives. This becomes particularly pressing given that, in an ageing society, many more people will find themselves in caring roles. Given this, nurturing a culture which values all of us as carers and potential carers should not be controversial.

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Any views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Institute as a whole.