Perceptions of unmet needs for community social care services in England. A comparison of working carers and the people they care for

Abstract

Perceptions of unmet needs for community social care services in England. A comparison of working carers and the people they care for Article (Accepted version) (Refereed) Original citation: Brimblecombe, Nicola, Pickard, Linda, King, Derek and Knapp, Martin (2017) Perceptions of unmet needs for community social care services in England. A comparison of working carers and the people they care for. Health & Social Care in the Community, 25 (2). Abstract Previous UK research has found expressed unmet need for services by unpaid working carers and among disabled and older people. There are, however, suggestions from research that views on unmet needs for services differ between carers and care-recipients. Working carers in the UK say that the care-recipient is sometimes reluctant to accept services and the few international comparative dyad studies that have been carried out find that carers perceive higher unmet need than care-recipients. Recent policy discussions in England have also recognised that there may be differences of opinion. We collected data in 2013 from working carer/care-recipient dyads in England about perceived need for services for the care-recipient, disability, unpaid care hour provision and individual and socio-demographic characteristics. We find that care-recipients as well as their carers perceive high unmet need for services, although carers perceive higher unmet need. For carers, unmet need is associated with the disability of the carer-recipient and being the daughter or son of the care-recipient; for care-recipients it is associated with unpaid care hours, carers' employment status and carers' health. The majority of dyads agree on need for services, and agreement is higher when the working carer provides care for 10 hours or more hours a week. Services for care-recipients may enable working carers to remain in employment so agreement on needs for services supports the implementation of legislation, policy and practice that has a duty to, or aims to, support carer's employment. What is known about this topic:  There is perceived unmet need for services by unpaid carers in England.  Expressed needs for services may differ between working carers and the people they care for in the UK.  Studies on dyads internationally find that perceived needs for services differ, with carers perceiving higher unmet need than care-recipients. What this paper adds:  Unmet need for services for the care-recipient in England is perceived as high by care-recipients, as well as by their working carers.  The majority of dyads agree on whether or not more services are needed.  Agreement on unmet need is higher when carers provide care for 10 or more hours a week compared to when carers provide fewer hours of care. 4

‘Replacement Care’ for Working Carers? A Longitudinal Study in England, 2013–15

“…Earlier analysis of our sample at baseline found that there was a high level of perceived unmet need for services by both working carers and the people they cared for, particularly where unpaid care was provided for ten or more hours a week (Brimblecombe et al . ). Analysis of our longitudinal sample at follow‐on found that unmet need by working carers remained high two years later, but that many carers and the people they cared for experienced barriers to receipt of social care services and, as a result, carers were often forced to make accommodations to their working lives (Brimblecombe et al .…”

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