More support will be offered to Guernsey’s unpaid carers thanks to a grant from the Guernsey Community Foundation.
Carers Guernsey has been awarded £60,000 over two years, to put towards the salary costs of an additional support worker.
The charity is the Island’s only dedicated provider of one-to-one outreach support to informal carers. Support workers visit them at home, assess their needs and create tailored support plans that seek to address their practical and emotional needs.
Guernsey is home to an estimated 8,000 unpaid carers. Carers Guernsey currently helps more than 175 carers, and demand is growing. The Foundation’s grant means more carers can receive the help they need so they can continue to be there for their loved ones.
Carers Guernsey chair, Ellie Lawrence, said: “We’ve reached the point where one member of staff simply can’t keep up with demand. Funding from the Foundation will mean that we can appoint another member of staff to manage our busy caseload, a result of the number of carers who need support locally.
“It will mean that carers get a faster response when they reach out to us, and our support doesn’t grind to a halt whenever our Service Manager is unavailable. It’s a straightforward, practical difference that will be felt by the unpaid carers in the community that we work with.”
The Foundation’s Chief Executive, Jim Roberts, said: “The Foundation created Carers Guernsey almost 10 years ago, after our research showed that informal carers – who save the States over £29m a year – were often isolated and in need of support. It has been some time since we offered Carers Guernsey financial assistance, but we were satisfied that with this grant they could reach more people and better meet rising demand.”
Applications to the Foundation’s grants programmes can be made at any time. For more information email grants@foundation.gg
