Looking after someone

You are a carer if you give unpaid care and support to someone who can’t manage without your help. This could be a family member, friend, partner or neighbour. The person you look after may have:

a disability or learning disability
a long term or life limiting illness
mental health difficulties
alcohol or drug related problems

You might not think of yourself as a carer, but rather as a family member or friend who looks after someone. If you’re a carer, you may be able to get financial and practical support from the Council, health services and voluntary organisations.

Caring responsibilities can affect the way you live your own life. It’s important to remember that, even though you are caring for someone else, you need to take care of yourself too.

Young carers

A Young Carer is a child or young person aged between 5 and 18 years looking after someone in their family who, due to illness, disability, mental health problems or alcohol or drug related problems, could not manage without their support. Young carers take on practical or emotional caring responsibilities that would usually be expected of an adult.

Caring responsibilities can have negative effects on a child or young person’s life. Young carers may carry out some or all of the following: domestic tasks, household management, personal care, emotional care, financial management or practical care.

Newcastle Carers provide support for young carers and their families

Action for Children have an anonymous and confidential text service for young carers aged 13 to 18. Young people can message any time, about anything that’s bothering them.

Support for Carers

Caring for someone can be stressful. You can experience a wide range of conflicting emotions. Feelings of isolation, guilt, anger or depression are common. Having someone to talk to about how you feel can make all of the difference.

Emotional support

You can get emotional support from a number of places in Newcastle. Don’t forget you can talk to the key workers involved with the person you care for. For example, their social worker, doctor, community or district nurse

Newcastle Carers helps adults and children with information, advice and support. They can support you if you look after someone who lives in Newcastle. They run support groups for carers so you can take a break, meet people in similar situations who can understand and get helpful information.

Young carers can get support at Newcastle Carers. They provide individual and group support for young carers as well as advice for their family.

Dementia and memory cafes are a supportive environment where people with dementia and their carers can socialise.

Support groups are available locally, where you can speak to other people facing the same issues as you and share your experiences.

Telephone helplines and talking therapies are available in Newcastle if you need to speak to someone about how you’re feeling. Read more on our mental health article

Online support for Carers

Mobilise is a free online service for unpaid carers in Newcastle. They have a range of online tools to help you. This includes help to access financial support and carers’ guides. Register with Mobilise to connect with other carers online, share tips, get support and information. You can get help with their 5 step email course, carers allowance checker and more.

Look after your health

When you are caring for someone else, it is very easy to forget about your own health. It’s really important to look after yourself, so that your own health doesn’t suffer.

Healthy eating and drinking and keeping physically active are important to help you take care of yourself

If you are caring for someone who has been discharged from the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust contact Newcastle Carers for help and support. You can read more about leaving Hospital on InformationNOW. You can also email [email protected]

If you’re looking after someone it can be really helpful to tell others that you’re a carer, they can offer additional support or flexibility to help you manage your caring role. You can register as a carer at:

- Your GP and/or hospital – Ask your GP or hospital to be put on their carers register or to have a note put on their systems that you care for someone. This can help you with appointments, prescriptions, vaccination and health checks.
- The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) – You can be registered as a carer of someone if you get carers allowance, carers credit, universal credit or other benefits due to your caring role.
- Newcastle Carers – You can register as a carer with your local carers service for information and support.
- Your workplace – Your employer may have their own carers register or carer policies. You can ask for flexible working, parental leave and carers leave at work.
- Your university or college – Many universities and colleges have young people and adult carers passports or registers. This can help you to ask for changes to your study if needed.
- Your energy provider and utilities services – You can register for the Priority Services Register, they provide extra energy advice and support for vulnerable people and carers.
- Your bank, phone and broadband providers – Identifying you are a carer at your bank helps you access or support someone to manage their money. Banks such as Santander, Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland offer carers accounts or cards. Phone and broadband providers may offer cheaper deals (known as social tariffs) for people getting benefits due to their caring role, they may also offer extra customer support for vulnerable people and their carers.

Take a break

Caring can be rewarding, but it can be stressful and tiring. You may need to take a break. To be able to have a break you may need someone else to be with the person you care for. To take a break you could arrange for a family member, neighbour or friend to be with the person you care for. Or you could use a support service such as:

employ a Personal Care Assistant
use a homecare agency to provide a sit in service or home care
arrange a short stay (respite care) in a residential care homes
day centres and services can offer the person you care for the chance to socialise with other people. These services usually offer some care or support, a meal and transport to and from the venue
arrange a supported or accessible holiday or short break using a specialised private service

There is a cost for these services listed above. The person you care for may be eligible for financial help from Newcastle City Council, to help pay for support.

Speak to Adult Social Care at Newcastle City Council to find out if you are eligible for financial help. Even if you are not eligible they can give you advice. They may be able to arrange support for the person you care for, so that you can have a break.

If you receive a Carers Break personal budget you could spend it on respite care, short term replacement care, a holiday together or a holiday alone. Read the Easy Read leaflet on newcastle.gov.uk

Newcastle Emergency Carer’s Card Scheme can arrange for planned support to allow carers to attend personal appointments. They also offer a range of support at home services. This is provided by British Red Cross in partnership with Newcastle City Council.

Newcastle Carers offer a Complementary Therapy service to carers, such as massage and aromatherapy. This is a low cost service to help you look after your health and wellbeing. Have a look at their booklet looking after you

Be informed

Advice and training to help you in your caring role can help you to look after yourself and the person you care for. You may benefit from learning how to lift someone safely so you don’t hurt yourself.

Newcastle Carers have training courses and useful online resources to help you.

Patient Information Centre has a range of mental health self help guides such as mindfulness.

Carers UK has a range of online resources for carers

Adult Social Care at Newcastle City Council can give you information and advice about adult social care issues. If you’re finding it harder to manage at home, you can call them to find out more about local help.

NHS.UK has lots of online information about health conditions and support for carers

Managing at home

Some changes to your home or pieces of equipment may help to make life easier for you and the person you care for. Read more on InformationNOW about:

Your rights as a carer

Carers UK produce a Looking after someone guide, which includes information on:

benefits and other financial help: including help with council tax, fuel costs, pensions and health costs
practical help: including carer’s assessments and direct payments
technology: information about health and care technology that could make life easier
your workplace: your rights at work, from flexible working and parental leave to protection from discrimination
other help: how to find other help nationally and in your local community

Making decisions on someone’s behalf

If you are a carer, you might need to manage someone else’s affairs or make decisions on their behalf. If this is the case, you may find the following topics useful to read:

Carers UK have a series of factsheets with top tips from carers on managing health matters, power of attorney, and dealing with services from banks to utility providers.

Carers assessment – Talk to the council about your caring role

Contact Adult Social Care at Newcastle City Council to talk to someone about your caring role.

They can offer you a carers assessment, if you care for someone over 18 living in Newcastle. Or you can ask for one.

A carers assessment is usually carried out by a social worker and offers you the opportunity to tell the Council about your caring role and the impact caring for someone is having on your own health and wellbeing.

Following your assessment, the Council will decide if you are eligible for support. This can be provided to you or the person you are looking after to reduce the impact caring has on you.

All carers, (even if you are not considered to be eligible for support) will be provided with information and advice on local services that can help to support you.

Benefits advice

Caring for someone can be expensive. You may have given up work to be a carer, or the person you care for may have been the main breadwinner in the past. You may find yourself with less money to spend but more to pay out, for example, on heating bills, equipment or prescriptions.

You may be entitled to the following benefits:

Newcastle City Council Welfare Rights Service can give you advice and check your receiving all of the benefits you’re entitled to. They can help with your benefit applications and appeals.

Other organisations that can help include:

Pension Service
Citizens Advice Newcastle

See Benefits for Carers an article from NHS.UK for more information.

Attendance Allowance

Attendance Allowance helps with extra costs if the person you care for has a disability severe enough that they need someone to look after them. It can be used to pay for personal care.

The person you care for could get attendance allowance if they are:

physically or mentally disabled
state pension age or older
need to be supervised

They could also get extra Pension Credit, Housing Benefit or Council Tax Reduction if they get Attendance Allowance.

You do not have to have someone caring for you in order to claim this benefit.

Carers can also get Carer’s Allowance if you have substantial caring needs.

Carer’s Credit

Carer’s Credit is a National Insurance credit that helps carers build up qualifying years for their State Pension.

To qualify for Carer’s Credit you must care for a total of 20 hours or more per week. The person you care for must receive:

Disability Living Allowance care component at the middle or highest rate; or
Attendance Allowance at any rate; or
Constant Attendance Allowance at any rate

If none of these apply, Carer’s Credit can still be awarded if you supply a Care Certificate that is signed by a health or social care professional.

Carers Wellbeing Fund

You can apply for a small grant of up to £200 from The Carers Wellbeing Fund to pay for things that help to improve your health and wellbeing as a carer. The fund is currently open for applications.

Ask Newcastle Carers about support for young carers to study, work or participate in an apprenticeship.

Young Carer 6th Form Bursary Scheme

Young adult carers can apply for a bursary of £300 per year to help with the costs associated with caring while in education. This funding is available to help you reach your full potential. Newcastle City Council has allocated funding to the Young Carer 6th Form Bursary Scheme for the next 2 academic years.

Direct payments – Paying for help and support

Depending on the outcome of your carers conversation, you may be eligible for a Direct Payment from the Council, also known as a carer’s personal budget.

This is a cash payment that enables you to pay for something that can help you in your caring role – for example, to pay for respite care, or for membership to a club that gives you time away from your caring role.

The Council may or may not charge you for carer’s services, depending on the support you need. However if they do decide to charge you they must carry out a financial assessment to determine how much you would need to contribute.

Employing a care worker

If you need a bit of extra help you might want to employ a care worker to help with your caring responsibilities. You can either go through a home care agency or you can employ an individual care worker directly.

Employing an independent care worker requires more initial organising, but it is often a cheaper option than using a home care agency, and also means that the same person will provide the care each time.

Workplace Pensions for care workers

The law has changed so now every employer must now provide a workplace pension by April 2019. Whether you’re a hairdresser, an architect or employ a personal care assistant, if you employ at least one person you are an employer and you will need to set up a workplace pension for them.

The National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) is a government scheme to help people who don’t have an existing workplace pension.

It’s an ideal workplace pension scheme for small employers, especially for individuals who hire their own carers or assistants, because it’s free to sign up to NEST and there is no ongoing administration.

Disability North can support you with arranging a workplace pension and other administrative duties for your employed care staff. They can also support you with recruiting a Personal Care and Support Assistant and advertise Personal Assistant vacancies on your behalf.

Social Care

Children’s Social Care supports families with children and young people under the age of 18. They work with families to make sure that children and young people are safe, healthy, and have the support they need to grow up happy and well.

Contact Children and Families Newcastle Early Help Team for more information. They can help your family to stay on track. Being a parent or carer can be a tough job and sometimes we all need a bit of help. You can ask for help with an ongoing problem or get help to prevent one from happening. You don’t need to face challenges on your own. They have hubs in Newcastle where you can help information, help, training and advice:

Adult Social Care at Newcastle City Council help people over the age of 18 in Newcastle. If you already get support from Children’s Social Care your Social Care Team will start to talk to you about moving to Adult Social Care, before you are 18 years old.

Employment

Carers Leave

Under the Carers leave act 2023 employees have a right to a week’s unpaid leave to support a person who relies on their care (known as a ‘dependent’).

carers leave is flexible and you don’t have to take it all in one go. You must take a minimum of half a working day at a time.
you are required to give notice to your employer, your notice doesn’t have to be in writing.
notice must be twice the length of time off being asked for or three days in advance – whichever is the longest notice time.
your carers leave cant be denied but it can be delayed if your employer’s business will be ‘unduly disrupted’.
if your employer delays your leave they must explain this this to you with reasons in writing within 7 days.
You must be allowed to take your leave no more than a month after it has been delayed.

If you are caring for someone and want to combine paid work with your caring responsibilities, there is a variety of help available from Jobcentre Plus including:

training, guidance and work placement programmes
work experience, volunteering and job trialling schemes
help with starting your own business
help combining work with looking after children or caring responsibilities
extra help for specific problems

Visit Gov.uk or contact your local Jobcentre Plus office for more information.

Newcastle Carers offers support to carers who may face barriers looking for work, returning to work or education.

Planning for emergencies

Carers Emergency Contact Scheme is a free service, so the person you care for can be looked after if you have a personal crisis such as, an illness, accident or emergency. Your plan is kept safe and available in an emergency. You are given:

help to write your emergency contact plan so they know what support the person you care for needs.
a card to carry so other people and emergency services, know you’re a carer and someone relies on you

In an emergency, your plan can be put into action. Even if you already have an emergency plan with a friend, relative or neighbour, it’s a good idea to register online for the Carers Emergency Card Scheme.

British Red Cross run this scheme. It’s funded by Newcastle City Council.

Bottle in the fridge scheme helps store your personal and medical information in your fridge door, so it can found quickly by emergency services, if you have an accident or sudden illness at home. This simple and free idea could help to save your life. It is also useful to people who may not be able to give their health information to the emergency services. Carers can include information about the person they care for, so it can be given to emergency services and give you peace of mind.

Jointly is an app for your phone, tablet or computer that can help you keep organised and up to date with your caring roles and responsibilities. It has features such as group messaging, to do and medication lists and calendar.

Emergency help

If someone’s life is in danger always call 999.

To speak to someone urgently about your care and support needs, contact Adult Social Care at Newcastle City Council

If you get support from Adult Social Care at Newcastle City Council contact your social worker or the team that helps you. This could be the:

Learning Disability and Autism Team, Telephone 0191 278 8100
Mental Health Team telephone 0191 277 2355

If you are not sure if you have a social worker or need other advice, please call:

Adult Social Care: Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm telephone 0191 278 8377

To speak to someone urgently 5pm to 8am, Monday to Friday or at weekends contact the Emergency Duty Team telephone 0191 278 7878

National organisations

Carers UK provide information and guidance to unpaid carers. They run a telephone helpline, email service and have a library of online information. They can help you with a range of subjects. They offer online activities for carers such as meet ups to talk to others about your experiences, Carers Connect forum online community, Online activities for carers such as pilates, exercise, digital skills, art, films, yoga and wellbeing.

Bridgit Care is an online tool for unpaid family and friend carers. Helping to look after the mental, emotional and physical health of carers. Use the website to find: information, support, advice and local events and services

Mobilise is an online tool for unpaid family and friend carers. Helping to look after the mental, emotional and physical health of carers. Use the website to find: information, support, advice and local events and services

Family and friend carers

The Relative Experience Project gives help and support to Kinship Carers – grandparents and their family members who are bringing up a relative’s child, often in very difficult circumstances.

Caring for people with addictions

Props North East offer a carer support service to people affected by alcohol, drug or addiction problems.

Children and young carers

Barnardo’s is a children’s charity that run over 1,000 services in local communities, and support around 300,000 children, young people and families every year. This includes support for young carers.

People with learning disabilities

Rescare supports families who have loved ones with a learning disability. They are run by families for families. They have a telephone helpline where you can ask questions about being a family carer, health and social care, education, housing and more.

Older people

The Carents Room is a free online resource for people supporting and caring for older parents. It has a range of information and resources to help you keep your parents safe and well.

Independent Age have a national telephone helpline for advice on care, benefits, getting help at home and adapting your home. They can arrange a follow up appointment for more detailed discussions

HOOP is an independent, free service providing advice and information for older people, their families and carers about housing and care options in later life.

Beyond your caring role

Adjusting to life after caring for someone can be difficult. Supporting someone with illness or a life limiting condition can be intense. It may feel very strange if you become less involved for any reason.

If the person you care for dies and your caring role stops. You are dealing with bereavement and can feel a sudden loss of purpose. You may have put the rest of your life on hold and feel as if you have no focus left. If you have lost touch with family or friends while caring, you may feel lonely or isolated too.

When your caring responsibility ends, the toll on your body and emotional health may begin to show. As you let go of the caring role, you can find your energy disappears. You may experience a range of emotions from relief, low mood or guilt. This may be challenging. It is important to look after your own health. It’s a good idea to get a check-up with your GP. Even if you feel you are coping well, it can still be valuable.

InformationNOW has articles on:

grief and bereavement
when someone dies: a practical guide
stress and anxiety
depression
support groups

Carer Friendly GP Surgeries in Newcastle

The following GP surgeries in Newcastle have been awarded Carer Friendly Accreditation by Newcastle Carers. This shows that the surgery is dedicated to supporting carers in Newcastle:

Support outside of Newcastle

You can find support in your area on the Carers Trust website.

The local support services for the North East are:

Accessible Information

The Accessible Information Standard is a UK law to make sure that people who have a disability, impairment or sensory loss are given information they can easily read or understand. Health and social care services must find out your information and communication needs make sure you get support the way you need it in an accessible format. This also applies to carers and parent carers.

For example you may need large print text for a letter or a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter at medical appointments for communication.

Other useful information

Being Heard; a guide to self-advocacy for carers – Free guide from Carers UK

Carersmart is a discount club run by Carers Trust. It is free to sign up and you can get benefits including:

cashback on shopping
discounts on holidays
free legal advice
best rates from energy providers

Last updated: July 4, 2024