Unpaid carers or informal carers – anyone who provides care, unpaid, for a friend or family member who due to illness, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction and cannot cope without their support – play a key role in the health and care system. Here we unpack who is likely to be an unpaid carer, how often care is provided, who people care for and how care is funded.

At the highest level, this analysis shows that England’s health and care services continue to be under
enormous pressure and, despite the best efforts of dedicated staff, unable to meet the needs of all the older people requiring treatment, care and support. The trend towards this was already firmly in place before the pandemic; it was greatly exacerbated during those traumatic two-plus years; there has been a creditable degree of recovery since then in some areas of provision; but in others it has not yet proved possible to arrest the decline in capacity, service availability and performance, with extremely worrying implications for older people and their families and communities.

While handling record demand, the social care sector in England is facing workforce, resource and funding pressures. There are also millions of people providing unpaid care. The new Labour government […]