Government Has “No Clue About Carers”, Says Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey

Research conducted by Acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey MP has revealed that almost half of the Government’s Departments do not know how many of their staff have caring responsibilities.

In answers to a series of Parliamentary Questions, Ed Davey MP has revealed:

• 8 out of the 18 Government Departments that employ staff do not know how many carers there are among their workforce.
• The Department and Health and Social Care has seen a fall in the numbers of carers working for the Department of 44% since 2016.
• Major Government Departments such as the Treasury, the Department for Education and the Ministry of Defence have no data on the number of carers working for them.

The research comes just a few weeks after Conservative Ministers flocked to social media during Carers Week 2020, with Health Minister Helen Whately MP, writing in The Times Red Box: “Carers are the unsung heroes of this pandemic…But all too often their kindness and devotion goes unseen and unacknowledged by wider society.”

Acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey MP said: “Just a few weeks ago Conservative Ministers flocked to social media during Carers Week to shower praise on the work of carers, yet it turns out almost half of the Government’s Departments can’t even be bothered to count how many carers they have working for them.

“As someone who was a young carer, I know just how tough being a carer can be, it’s why I recently proposed a Bill that would give carers better rights in the workplace for flexible working. Millions of carers up and down the country are struggling to hold down a job and maintain their caring commitments. We need to encourage employers to reach out and support the nation’s army of carers and that starts with the Government taking a lead and reaching out within its own workforce.”

In Ed Davey’s recently published plan for carers he proposed that being a carer is made a protected characteristic. This would ensure that all employers were made to record how many carers they employed and would improve the rights of carers from discrimination.