Key worker status for unpaid carers?

[Brizzle]

I am a single father of a daughter who is in school year 8. I used to be my mum’s main carer and consequently received carers allowance but Mum’s condition is such now that she requires 24 hour live in care 7 days a week. Social services have insisted that I must cover the carers 2 hour breaks 4 days a week but with travelling this takes up around 3 hours on each of the days in question. I also have to do all of Mum’s shopping and everything else in between such as house maintenance and gardening etc.

My question , does anybody know if unpaid carers are regarded by the government as key or essential workers? I am having to leave my daughter alone home schooling for quite a number of hours on weekdays and although she has just turned 13 it is not really ideal . Obviously if my continuing carers role was regarded as “essential “ then I would hope that my daughters school would allow her to attend school during the current lockdown.

Social services have decided that my attendance which reduces its financial burden is both key and essential in making it possible for Mum to stay at home but do our Government currently agree? I really cannot seem to find any definitive answer to this on my internet searches.

Any advice very much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Jessbow]

Are social services paying for a live in 24/7, bar 4x 2 hour slots? You are extremely lucky if they are.
I'd imagine school are viewing it as support bubble- so no they wont cover that.
Have you actually asked them? I suppose it might depend on take up of availible places.

 

[Brizzle]

Yes social services are covering my mum’s live in care less an approx 25% means tested contribution from her pension etc. I did my research and realised that I had to convince my local authority that for the time being at least living at home was in my mum’s best interests. They did a needs assessment and fortunately (but rather unusually it seems compared to most other local authorities) agreed that this was indeed the case. It was nice to see that unlike many others they had performed their “ duty of care” obligation to the last letter. Extremely lucky, well maybe, but people should plan thoroughly and understand social services obligations under UK law when it comes to the needs assessment. My Mum had previously paid thousands of pounds privately over a period of time for live in care and had her main carer present with myself at the needs assessment so I guess this proved the model was working well. Maybe if we had asked for live in care from a standing start things would have worked out very differently.

Regarding the carer key worker question I have come across a piece on an “action for carers” website that said “unpaid carers had been added to the governments “essential “ workers list as far back as last May, but the article seems to focus more on having access to corona virus testing than anything else. I have seen very little since other than in generic terms that the Government regards Carers as key workers. The trouble is there is no definitive answer to how many hours a week an unpaid carer would have to work to come under this bracket....for a change I can find no small print!

Of course I will indeed approach the school but would rather know what my rights are before I do. The chances are they will be none the wiser than myself regarding this and be unsure as to whether 16 hours or so a week constitutes a key carer role.