Alison Bennett's Monday Mail: Carers Week

Carers Week

Last week was Carers Week, and the theme for this year was ‘Building carer friendly communities’. I started the week by meeting carers from across the country on a zoom call organised by Carers UK. On Tuesday, I petitioned the Backbench Business Committee for them to schedule a debate about family carers. On Wednesday, I dropped into a reception in Parliament. On Thursday I visited The Fircroft Trust in Surbiton with the local MP - Ed Davey. Then I rounded the week off on Friday by hosting a local coffee morning for Mid Sussex Carers with the help of Carers Support who provide support across West Sussex for unpaid carers. 

So after that whirlwind of events, what do I take away from Carers Week 2026? Firstly, that caring is not about a single week of the year. Carers do what they do 365 days a year. Their care often takes place in the privacy of the home and so is hidden from the public gaze. Whatsmore, each person’s experience of being a carer is unique - whether it's a primary school child checking that a parent has taken their meds before going to school, someone juggling work with caring for a frail parent whilst raising a family, or the octogenarian who has been caring for their disabled son for sixty years. That unique experience means that each carer’s needs are different too, and so what they need from a carer friendly community will vary and indeed it will change over time. 

It’s not just about local support. Carers touch many different arms of the state: the NHS, the Council, the Department for Work and Pensions. Throughout last week, when carers came to talk to me, they were, in the main, talking to me about the needs of the person they care for, rather than their own needs. 

Ed Davey made Care a central plank of our general election campaign two years ago, and it remains a priority. We are determined to keep pushing the government to give Carers the support that they need to keep caring for their loved ones. The conversations that I had with Carers last week tells me that we still have a long way to go before we can say that ‘Carer Friendly Communities’ truly exist.

Now do this

The government has opened a consultation on employment rights for unpaid carers and parents of seriously ill children. If this is something that you have experience of, or an interest in, please do consider sharing your views.

A key achievement of the Liberal Democrats in the last Parliament was Wendy Chamberlain’s successful Private Members Bill which became the 2023 Carer’s Leave Act. This gave every employee the right to five days unpaid carer’s leave. The Lib Dems would like to see this right extended so that the leave is paid. This matters because family carers are disproportionately likely to be in low paid or part time work, and consequently very often they cannot afford to take time off without pay.

The other part of the consultation is about the employment rights of parents with seriously ill children. Since becoming an MP I have supported the campaign for Hugh’s Law which would guarantee paid leave from day 1 for parents of seriously or terminally ill children. This is a right that already exists for newborn babies who need extra care. Local families like Teddy’s and Finley’s have told me that when you get devastating news about the health of your child, not having to worry about household finances would be one less thing to deal with at an incredibly difficult time.

The DIP

It hasn’t been lost on me that there was a huge row in government last week about the DIP or ‘Defence Investment Plan’ culminating in the Defence Secretary resigning over the Prime Minister and the Treasury not being able to find the money to meet the uplift in defence spending identified in last year’s Strategic Defence Review. Much has been made about which departments should have their budgets cut in order to fund this uplift. For months now, the Liberal Democrats have been calling for the creation of Defence Bonds which we estimate would raise £20 billion. 

I am not naive, there are hard decisions that this - or the next - prime minister will have to take in order to keep British citizens safe, get the economy growing, and deliver the improvements to public services that are so desperately needed. However, I do feel that Starmer’s credibility on foreign affairs and defence has been fatally undermined in the last few days, and I think that Lib Dem plans to table a ‘Humble Address’ are needed when there is such doubt about the credibility of the government to uphold its first duty which is to keep people safe.   

Getting in touch

My parliamentary email address is: alison.bennett.mp@parliament.uk. If you need my help, please get in touch.

Best wishes,
Alison

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