At any time of life, people can become carers. You might be an adult carer who is responsible for looking after a partner, a parent, or a friend who has become ill, disabled or frail. You might be a working carer, juggling a career with looking after someone.
You could be a young carer who has to help with the needs of a parent, grandparent or brothers and sisters. Perhaps you are a parent carer who has a disabled child in need of constant care.
Whichever type of carer you are, there is support and help available. This page provides information on how to get the right type of help for your needs.
Adult carers
You are an adult informal carer if you are over the age of 18 and caring for someone over the age of 18 without being paid (excluding carers allowance). If this person depends on you for their daily living requirements and you are finding it difficult to cope, please visit the
adult carer pages for details of the help that is available to you. If you prefer, you can call the
Carers’ hotline on
01245 434 375.
Once you have contacted us, we will arrange to carry out a carers’ assessment, either by phone or by visiting you. This assessment shows us how we can best help to meet your needs.
Working carers
If you are juggling work and caring, you should let your employer know about your responsibilities. Once they know they are more likely to be understanding of your situation. Under The Work and Families Act 2006, as a carer you should be entitled to ask for flexible working. If this would help you, discuss it with your employer.
Young carers
If you are under 18 and spend much of your time looking after someone who would find it difficult to cope without your help, you are probably a young carer.
There are a lot of young carers in Essex and many of them need help and support. A group of them helped us to develop the
Essex Young Carers website, which gives information they thought other young carers would find useful. On this site, you can find out what young carers in your area are up to and any events that are taking place.
Parent carers
If you have a child under 18, with a disability or long term illness, you are a parent carer. You may be interested in
shared care, a respite and friendship scheme for children between 0-18 years where trained volunteers provide regular short breaks giving parents a rest from caring.
To find out more about the shared care scheme, or if you are interested in becoming a
foster carer, contact us on 0800 801 530.
Care homes and care services
The Relatives and Residents Association also provide free and independent advice on matters affecting older people and their choice about future care. They will help and support you in finding the right answers to your questions on care and services, either in the community or in residential care.
Employment as a carer