Derby City Council support Carers’ Rights Day
Looking after someone? Know your Rights
– Derby City Council support Carers’ Rights Day
On 28th November local carers attended our Carers’ Rights Day event. This is a national event, held every year to ensure that carers know their rights regarding benefit entitlements and to inform them of the practical support available to help them in their caring role.
To mark this special occasion, Derbyshire Carers’ Association (DCA) invited Councillor Ranjit Banwait, Leader of Derby City Council and those working in Health and Social Care from across the city, to take part and hear from carers. (DCA recognises that Derby City Council’s continued support for carers is invaluable to both ourselves as an organisation as well as to our carers).
This ‘drop-in’ event gave participants the opportunity to find out how legal changes to the Care Act (commencing April 2015) may affect their rights as carers. It also provided both carers and health professionals the opportunity to discuss issues with key decision makers and DCA staff within an informal atmosphere.
Also included as part of the day was the presentation of the DCA’s new carers’ stories (available through our website). These stories detail the frustrations, difficulties and rewards of caring through the personal accounts of carers themselves. Most importantly, these stories examine how DCA can offer support and advice to carers throughout Derbyshire.
It is estimated that millions of carers do not claim benefits and the support to which they are entitled. ‘Looking After Someone? Know your Rights!’ was designed to rectify part of this problem by equipping carers with sufficient knowledge, information and resources to aid their everyday life as a carer. Therefore it is important for carers to become familiar with current legislation.
This includes:
• Your right to an assessment
• Your right to request flexible working
• Your right to not be discriminated against
Whether you are a carer or whether you work in a health and social care setting, we hope that this event proved to be equally useful.
(If you are a carer, call DCA on 01332 200002 for details of how we can support you or email: derby@derbyshirecarers.co.uk. For more details of future events log on to www.derbyshirecarers.co.uk).