Friday the 30th November was Carers Rights Day and our providers raised awareness in different ways in order to help carers to understand their rights and how to access the help and support to which they are entitled.   

Upturn Enterprise and their Carer Community Champions were at Asda in Swinton for the day. They gave out information on carers rights and talked to carers about their experiences. The team was joined by Nicola from local firm Stephenson’s Solicitors, who were able to give free legal advice on Power of Attorneys, House gifting, wills etc. 

A big thank you to Asda in Swinton who looked after the team really well, to Nicola for sharing her time and expertise and to Stephenson’s Solicitors for allowing Nicola to take part free of charge.

Bolton at Home ran a live chat on their Facebook & Twitter accounts which resulted in great engagement from carers and employers alike, reaching the attention of people from as far away as Spain! With Facebook posts reaching over 900 people and over 100 engagements on Twitter the live chat was really successful. People were also able to private message questions to the team. The tweets and posts comprised information on general carers statistics, quotes from Carers on the programme and signposting to local support services. It was a great way to raise the profile of the programme, raise awareness of carer’s rights and also about the needs of carers themselves.

Making Space in Wigan ran a pop up event at Ince Life Centre, with lots of literature regarding Carer entitlements & signposting.

Within the Life centre is a doctors, library, council information point and a community interest Café. The team spoke to carers and cared for people, distributing literature, offering a listening ear, support and a nice hot brew!

A big thanks to the Life Centre for hosting the event and to the library and doctors’ surgery who are now sharing information about the Working Potential programme.

Also, to coincide with Carers Rights Day, the GM Health and Social Care Partnership (GMHSCP) launched their Employer Toolkit, containing guidance, advice and a self-assessment tool enabling employers to better understand how to retain and attract carers in the workplace.  Ambition for Ageing were pleased to support with the development process for this toolkit. For more information or to download the toolkit please click here.