Unmet need among carers
Research type
Research Study
Full title
What are the effects of unmet need for social care on unpaid carers? Risk factors, consequences and mediators
IRAS ID
268687
Contact name
Nicola Brimblecombe
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
London School of Economics and Political Science
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
Many people in England with a disability, long-term physical or mental ill health, or problems related to their older age are not getting enough or any of their support needs met. Age UK estimates that this affects as many as 1.4 million older people in England alone. Part of the reason for this is that they are not receiving enough social care services. In this study we call this ‘unmet need for services’.
In many cases, a family member or friend (often called carers or unpaid carers) provides some support, and they may also be affected by lack of services for the person they care for. But we do not know which carers are most at risk, nor how it affects them. We also do not know if some carers are affected more than others and if so why. Finding out more about these experiences would make it easier to make better support available to carers, recognising their own personal circumstances.To answer these questions and find out more about carer’s experiences, we will first use national data collected over a number of years to look at the extent to which the needs of the disabled or older person are met by services and explore some of the reasons for this, including how any services are paid for. Using this data plus interviews with 25 to 30 carers with a range of different caring experiences, we will explore how unmet need for services affects carers, which carers are most affected, and what makes their situation better or worse. In this study we are focusing on the experiences of adult carers who live with the person they support.
Our research is a 24-month project, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) School for Social Care Research (SSCR). The study is being carried out by the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
REC name
Social Care REC
REC reference
19/IEC08/0046
Date of REC Opinion
16 Sep 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion