11th March 2008

Major Big Lottery Fund Grant Secured

Thousands of family carers in Northumberland are to benefit from a major grant awarded by the Big Lottery Fund.

Carers Northumberland, a newly registered charity, has been successful in securing a £300,000 grant from the Big Lottery Fund, to match funding already committed by the Northumberland NHS Care Trust.  The money will be used to support people throughout the county who provide unpaid care for a family member or friend who is affected by disability, illness or frailty.

Stan Cooke, Chair of Carers Northumberland, says: “This money will enable us to develop our services to provide information, emotional support and advice throughout the whole of Northumberland and make a real difference to those carers who need it most.”

Stan explains: “There are more than 34,000 carers in Northumberland.  Of these, about 7,000 provide more than 50 hours care a week, with many effectively working in a ‘24/7’ care situation.  The people we support often don’t recognise themselves as carers; they are partners, children, parents and friends whose caring workload is frequently detrimental to their own wellbeing and many carers become ill as a result of the stress of their carer role.  Yet, the unpaid work done by carers saves the Northumberland economy around £487m a year and the national economy about £87bn a year, which is considerably more than the entire government combined spending on the NHS and social care.”

Carers Northumberland has been formed by combining two excellent local projects, CarerLink and Carers Together, which have been supporting carers respectively in the north and south east of Northumberland for the past three years.  The Big Lottery Fund grant will be used to expand this existing provision to include the 6,000 carers who live in the rural west of Northumberland, who until now have had no generic support service, giving them access to an innovative, enhanced service of information, advice and emotional support that will be consistently available throughout the county.  Carers Northumberland will deliver all these new support services in cooperation with other agencies and providers.  Also, thanks to the Big Lottery Fund grant, the monitoring of carer issues, the provision of a carer voice and the influencing of developments in carer support services will be significantly improved.

Contacts:

Stan Cooke, Chair, Carers Northumberland  Tel: 07754 377395, or stan@c-pac.biz

Cari Hook, Development Officer  Tel: 01670 858688

Kate Whitehead or Jean Worth, Development Officers  Tel: 01668 219951