What are the costs and benefits of support for unpaid carers, particularly short break support? How do the costs of delivering such support compare to the benefits for carers (which could relate to carer wellbeing; improved outcomes for the cared-for person; carers accessing employment; and savings to the health and social care system due to maintaining caring relationships).
Background
We are interested in developing the research evidence around unpaid care givers (including young carers) and for those who receive unpaid care. The impacts of unpaid care are known to be significant, ranging from physical health and emotional wellbeing, to impacts on finances and economic activity. It is vital to understand these impacts, to feed into policy decisions and target additional support where it is most needed.
Unpaid carers provide a significant amount of support that is not currently accounted for within the social care workforce more generally. As such, quantifying the amount of people providing care, and the amount of care they provide, is vital to enable efficient and accurate workforce planning and projections moving forward.
Unpaid carers provide support which also impacts on the amount and type of formal care someone receives; therefore, unpaid care is an important factor across many of the themes found in this ARI.
There are various datasets covering the provision of care (Scottish Health Survey (SHeS)) and experiences of carers (Health and Care Experience Survey (HACE)), Carers Census), however the data landscape is not consistent and some data sources represent specific sub-groups of carers, and as such, it can be difficult to draw conclusions based on these sources on the entire caring population.
Next steps
Get in touch with [email protected]
Source
This question was published as part of the set of ARIs in this document:
Social Care Analytical Unit Areas of Research Interest 2026 2029 published 25 March 2026
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Related UKRI funded projects
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Using the Earnings and Employees Study (2011) to analyse the association between unpaid caring and employment and earnings in NI.
Currently it is estimated that one-in-five adults in Northern Ireland (NI) have caring responsibilities. A total of 214,000 (12%) people were providing some form of unpaid care on Census Day 2011 in NI, compared with 185...
Funded by: ESRC
Lead research organisation: University of Ulster
Why might this be relevant?
This project specifically focuses on unpaid caring in Northern Ireland and its impact on employment and income, addressing the costs and benefits outlined in the question.
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Building the care skill set of unpaid carers
In the United Kingdom, there are currently around 13.6 million unpaid family carers looking after older, ill and/or disabled adults. This number increases by 6000 people daily and over 2 million people yearly. People a...
Funded by: ISCF
Lead research organisation: King's College London
Why might this be relevant?
While this project focuses on building the skill set of unpaid carers, it only partially addresses the costs and benefits of support for unpaid carers outlined in the question.
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Centre for Care
The Centre for Care is a collaboration between the universities of Sheffield, Birmingham, Kent and Oxford, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the Office for National Statistics, Carers UK, the National...
Funded by: ESRC
Lead research organisation: University of Sheffield
Why might this be relevant?
This project provides a broader perspective on care systems and workforce, partially addressing the question about costs and benefits of support for unpaid carers.