Club meeting at Ashmores

9th September 2021 Rotary and Carers UK Partnership – Alan Bush

Alan explained that he had been a member of Sherwood Sunrisers R C for 21 years and in 2018 following a talk by Sandra Morrey about Memory Cafes he was looking for something different and so became a Carers UK Rotary Club and District Lead Ambassador. Former District Governor Dr. Cheryle Berry also spoke to their Club about Care UK, which had started in the 1960’s in an attempt to make life better, for people who found themselves in a care role, giving them support, improving awareness of various organisations through communication.  There are 6.5 million carers in the UK, which equates to 1 in 8 adults and this unpaid care saves the state £132 Billion a year.  Following the Covid 19 pandemic this figure rose to 13.6 million people.

Alan outlined the number of organisations out there, on websites and Apps to help Carers.  Following the partnership with Rotary 3 years ago it was recognised that through Rotary’s networks at Club, District and National level utilising the incredible voluntary support work that it delivers in local communities. Naturally they are looking to expand their number of Ambassadors, who are simply required to make contact with carers for 1 hour each week.

Alan’s passion became apparent regarding Young Carers, this is something he wants to look into in 2022, at present there are 800,000 young carers aged 5-17 care for adults or family members in the UK, 27% of young carers aged 11-15 miss school, this is totally unacceptable and he would like to change this. Accepting that this is a very difficult area as we now have the data protection situation and Social Care Authorities and schools are unable to give out pupil information, so we wish him the best of luck on that mission.

Allen gave a vote of thanks recognising the enormity of the challenge that this Country faces in relation to Social Care, which is currently very high profile at Government level and something that has defeated all the previous Governments!  This was followed by a number of questions that Alan fielded …. and members joined with a show of their appreciation.                           AR