We initiated a unique collaboration with Oxfam Cymru and Vanessa Marr called “Caring Craftivists”. Carers in Wales are invited to express their experiences and issues through stitching onto a domestic duster, providing an innovative platform for sharing stories. These dusters will then be exhibited at the Senedd on 24th October, 2023.

Rachel's and Abbi's petitions were debated in a parliamentary session, an acknowledgment of our efforts to bring carers' concerns to the forefront.

Rachel’s petition called to “Provide an energy grant to people with a disability or serious medical condition” Over 16,300 people signed it.

With Oxfam’s help we provided parliamentarians with a briefing paper.

Barbara Keeley MP for Worsley and Eccles

From attending a reception at No. 10 Downing Street with Dr Silvia Galandini to engaging in parliamentary drop-ins with carers Rachel and Shirley, we continue to raise our voices and seek avenues for change.

Photos Carers Week 2023

Our film's significance was acknowledged when we won the Smiley Charity Film of the Year award in our size category, reaffirming its impact and importance.

Photo of award ceremony here (left to right – Faye Winter, Natasha Hawthornthwaite, Katy Styles, Lizzie Mistry and Tom Allen)

(Click to view full screen)

We joined forces with 90 other organizations to advocate for low-income households' essentials through a collective letter to politicians.

We played a crucial role in forming the House of Lords Adult Social Care Committees understanding of what it was like to care now. We Care and Katy were both cited multiple times in the report.

As a strategic group member of the Carers Poverty Coalition, alongside organisations such as Oxfam GB and Joseph Rowntree Foundation, we share our first hand caring experiences to drive change in policy.

Our evocative film, "The Ones Who Care," touched over 50,000 individuals. Featuring a poignant poem by Carla Mellor and captured by Northern Heart Films, this collaborative effort involving 60 carers beautifully showcases the realities of caregiving today. The film is actively used by healthcare trusts, organizations, councils, and charities to shed light on caregiving experiences.

During Carers Week 2022, together with carers Jenny and Shirley, we engaged parliamentarians in conversations about the challenges we, as a caregiving community, face.

Photos from Parliamentary Drop in Carers Week

(Click to view full screen)

We were honoured when House of Lords Adult Social Care Committee invited our founder, Katy, as one of three carers to testify. Watch Katy's compelling testimony where she shares her profound experience of feeling obligated to care.

Watch Katy give evidence here, saying she didn’t feel she had a choice but to care.

We Care provided written evidence, amalgamating carers' perspectives on present caregiving challenges. Our insights played a crucial role in shaping subsequent reports, most notably in "A Gloriously Ordinary Life," released in December 2022.

Rachel Curtis started this petition to support those with a disability or serious health condition to have greater help with energy bills running vital equipment.

We ran our award winning sticking plaster craftivism campaign for Carers Rights Day 2021. Check out the sticking plasters below.

We Care Campaign joined a coalition of organisations to campaign to keep the £20 uplift in Universal Credit.

During the pandemic, the £20 increase in Universal Credit was a welcome safety net that somewhat alleviated the financial struggles faced by many, including carers on the frontline of the fight against the Coronavirus – although Carer’s Allowance and legacy benefits were all excluded from the £20 increase, hence leaving many carers without this vital extra support.

The cut in Universal Credit takes this safety net away with no adequate alternative measures. It also comes at a time when living costs are rising and furlough is ending – a dangerous combination of higher costs and falling incomes that is set to significantly impact on the lives of those who are already struggling. Carers, including low-paid social care and childcare workers, single parents, low-income families and unpaid carers, will also be affected. The cut is once again likely to disproportionality affect women.

We urge the UK government to reconsider the cut and keep the £20 increase in Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit.

We Care Campaign activity for Carers' Week - our biggest week of campaigning yet.

With our partnership with Oxfam GB Carers Week was our biggest and best yet. Take a look at the picture summary of all of the things we got up to during the week.

We Care Campaign mentioned in an Adjournment Debate in Westminster on a National Carers Strategy 12th March

One of our manifesto asks is for a National Carers Strategy which would identify and support unpaid carers in the UK. This issue was the subject of a debate lead by Barbara Keeley and responded by the Minister Nadine Dorries. You can read the debate here.

Never before has the role of the unpaid carer been more vital. Looking after people unable to support themselves, unpaid carers are working in the background to keep people safe, out of hospital, propping up the NHS and social care systems. They are doing it for love, with little recognition and with minimal support. Now more than ever their contribution should be recognised. We need unpaid carers to be visible and valued.

We Care Campaign sign Oxfam joint letter to all politicians on care, poverty and the impact of coronavirus on the UK's unpaid carers.

We Care published our election asks for unpaid carers in the lead up to the snap 2019 General Election. We pored over political party manifestos and checked where their commitments aligned with our 5 points to value the UK's unpaid carers.

Our message was clear - unpaid carers cannot continue to be the sticking plaster for our underfunded health and social care systems. Check out our manifesto and how the parties measured up.

We Care founder Katy shares our sticking plaster campaign actions here.

We Care Campaign advocate Rachael Martin-Smith took to the Labour Party 2019 Conference stage to address 1,000 delegates on behalf of the UK's unpaid carers. Points made included the £132 billion of savings provided annually to our economy by unpaid carers whilst being underrepresented and unrecognised. The speech received lots of support from the conference floor.

Watch her speech below: from 1:12:50

During Carers Week 10th June -16th June, 2019 the We Care Campaign highlighted unpaid carers experiences of caring for their family members and friends.

We Care policy asks were also promoted including our ongoing call for a National Carers Strategy and raising Carers Allowance (CA) to bring it in line with Job Seekers Allowance (JSA).

Barbara Keeley MP received a response to the Carers Strategy petition from the Department of Health and Social Care:

.....towards the end of 2017 ministers took the decision not to go forward with publishing a National Carers Strategy so that carers could be considered as part of the forthcoming Green Paper on care and support. The Green Paper will be published at the earliest opportunity and will include a focus on how we support carers as part of a sustainable health and care system. In the meantime, in order to demonstrate how the Government was continuing to support informal (unpaid) carers, we published a Carers Action Plan on 5 June 2018. The Carers Action Plan sets out a cross-Government programme of targeted work to support carers over the next two years.

On Carers Rights day 2018 cross party politicians including Sarah Champion MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Marsha de Cordova MP, Sir Roger Gale MP, Andrew Gwynne MP and Robert Halfon MP joined with the public to rally in support of unpaid carers across the UK.

See our twitter Moment here.

Barbara Keeley MP for Worsley and Eccles South and former Shadow Minister for Social Care and Mental Health presented the We Care Campaign petition for a carers strategy to parliament with 2,124 signatories.

The We Care Campaign launch event took place in Canterbury, Kent. It was attended by unpaid carers, supporters and MP for Canterbury Rosie Duffield. Katy Styles shared her experiences as an unpaid carer and why she believes the estimate 7 million unpaid carers across the UK must come together to truly make themselves heard and feel valued by our Government decision makers.

n March 2016 carers were asked to contribute to a consultation, to inform government on the new Carers Strategy. 6,500 carers and carers support organisations, alongside charities contributed to the consultation.

Carers waited throughout 2017 when government announced that the Carers Strategy had been scrapped and a Carers Action Plan would replace it.

In January 2018, fed up with waiting the We Care Campaign was founded and launched an online petition. Its aim to get government to publish the long awaited Carers Strategy. The petition ran for 6 months, gaining support from carers support organisations, individual carers and decision makers.

A Carers Action Plan was finally published in June 2018.

But an Action Plan is not a Strategy.