Respite Care Charity Lines Up 129 Deck Chairs Across Trafalgar Square

National charity Revitalise took over Trafalgar Square this morning, laying out 129 deckchairs to reflect that of the 4.7 million unpaid carers in England, only 1 in 129 are receiving respite support. A timely manoeuvre during Carers Week 2024 and in support of the charity’s Give me a Break campaign – 128 striped deckchairs and one unique deckchair were used to depict this statistic.

Revitalise is the UK’s leading provider of accessible respite breaks and holidays for those requiring 24-hour care and is dedicated to enabling individuals with disabilities and their caregivers to experience genuine holidays. The Give me a Break campaign aims to raise awareness of the severe challenges facing disabled people and carers and calls for action to provide and protect respite funding.

Respite care is a statutory right for those who need it, but drastic cuts to local authority funding mean that many carers are not getting any breaks. A recent survey carried out by Revitalise found that over 60% of carers had not had a break in the past year and over 25% of respondents had never had a break at all.

Ahead of the upcoming general election, the Give me a Break campaign calls on MPs to take heed of the critical state of affairs in the social care sector. In particular, the significant fall in access to respite support. Revitalise’s guests and their families have been abandoned by both politicians and policy makers, and are at breaking point.

Muneeba Raja’s son Yusuf, London, is a guest at Revitalise’s Jubilee Lodge in Essex. Despite the marked benefits Muneeba and Yusuf both gain from him accessing respite care, she continues to struggle to secure funding, often having to approach her Local Authority on a month-by-month basis. Like many others who Revitalise staff have spoken with the Raja family have also experienced being denied access to regular adult social care services due to delays in, or lack of, funding.

Muneeba said: “You often feel as though you are hitting your head against a brick wall – particularly with the number of emails you send that remain unanswered.

“If Yusuf’s respite care was provided in the first place, we could stop some of this stress. I feel the pressure on a day-to-day basis as a carer for a young adult with a disability. That’s something you live with and deal with, but the limbo with funding is agony and for no reason, it doesn’t have to be this way.

“I’m not asking for people to feel sorry for me or Yusuf, I just need social services to put working solutions into place and create accountability for the countless problems in the system.”

CEO of Revitalise, Janine Tregelles CBE said:
“These 129 deckchairs laid out on Trafalgar Square serve as a stark reminder of the millions of carers in England who are not provided with the means to access respite care.

“Only 1 in 129 unpaid carers are receiving support and instead of planned intervention to support caring relationships, carers are being forced to say they cannot go on before respite is offered. Our sector has warned successive governments about the dire lack of funding and the intolerable pressure this puts on unpaid carers. The silence from policy makers is deafening”.

During the Give me a Break campaign and following the results of the general election, Revitalise will be inviting their guests, carers and the general public to write to their local MP and ask them to ensure respite is properly funded and that funding receives specific protection.