Our History

The carer's movement is now entering it's fifth decade. The organisation that is now Carers UK has a long history and a past that has firmly shaped the way Carers UK operates in the present.

Author Tim Cook has recently delved into Carers UK’s archives to write a history of the carers’ movement. He found that although the organisation might have moved with the times, the way Carers UK operates today owes a great deal to the vision, methods and values of the carers who led the organisation through its infancy.

The one woman who began it all, learned very early on the importance of good media coverage in highlighting the carers’ cause. The Rev. Mary Webster gave up her work as a minister in 1954 to care for her parents. She was just 31 years of age. Over the next decade she began to think about her situation and the disadvantages, not least financial, that it had created.

Media

In January 1963 Mary Webster burst upon the public with her proposal for helping unmarried women with dependants. What is breath-taking is the sheer amount of publicity that she generated in the early months of 1963. This was an issue that had been almost totally hidden and it is hard to believe this was one woman’s work with no organisation behind her. She frequently wrote to newspapers and journals highlighting the position of single women caring at home who were, as she said, “under house arrest”. With the media coverage came support as hundreds of women in similar situations wrote to Mary, relieved that at last someone had recognised their situation.

Lobbying

She soon realised that a new organisation was needed and in 1965 she formed the National Council for the Single Woman and her Dependants. The next stage for her was to win political support . Over the next few years Mary Webster showed an acute political instinct of choosing the right allies as she enlisted key supporters like Sir Keith Joseph MP and Nancy Seear (later to be Baroness Seear). With the help of such key political players the Council was soon able to exert an influence over Government and win the first ever legislative change with the 1967 Dependant’s Relatives Tax Allowance. With this victory began a style of campaigning that continues in the work of Carers UK today, bringing about change through research and lobbying. Mary Webster died in 1969 tragically young at only 46 years old yet her legacy has been sustained and the culture which she so firmly established, continues to this day.

Evidence

Into the 1970’s the Council was led by it’s first paid director, Roxanne Arnold, a barrister described by the Guardian newspaper as “a tough, practical, unsentimental campaigner with an ability for exerting precise pressure on the right people”.The Council had some outstanding successes – it was instrumental in securing the Attendance Allowance in 1971 and the Invalid Care Allowance in 1976. The 1976 campaign for the Invalid Care Allowance (ICA) was based on evidence in a report ‘The Costs of Caring’ , just as Carers UK’s current campaign is based on the research ‘Real Change not Short Change’. The campaigning style begun by Mary Webster and Roxanne Arnold continues – to always have sound research to base campaigns on and to ensure the cause was kept in front of politicians.

A new charity

In 1981 a new organisation, the Association of Carers, was being set up by Judith Oliver. Judith Oliver was a carer for her disabled husband as well as having a young family. Juggling the two sets of family demands made her realise there was a need for an organisation to support all carers, not just those with elderly dependents. An important early principle was that it was a self help organisation of carers not for them. She established a member-led ethos, that carers themselves are best placed to decide what help carers need. This is something that is written into Carers UK’s constitution to this day, ensuring carers themselves run the organisation.

It seems incredible now but back in 1981 Judith’s newly formed Association was refused registration as a charity because ‘carers’ themselves were not considered a suitable charitable cause, just the people they cared for. The Association was asked to include “dependants” in their name but refused to do so. It would take two years before charitable registration was agreed.

During the early 1980s the Association set a dizzying pace of campaigning. Its most successful campaign was to have the ICA extended to married women in 1986. Jackie Drake, a member of the Association was a married carer and agreed to be a test case. The European Court of Justice found in her favour and the Government declared that it would extend the ICA to married women - paving the way for all carers to be able to claim it including men. Individual carers like Jackie, who provide their case as evidence are still central to the success of Carers UK’s campaigns today.

Merger

In 1986 talks began about a merger between the two carers' organisation : the Council and the Association. These came to fruition in 1988 with the establishment of Carers National Association. In 2001 Carers National Association was renamed Carers UK, responding to the challenges of devolution with a name that recognised the important role of Carers Scotland, Carers Wales and Carers Northern Ireland.

Throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century Carers National Association/Carers UK have continued the principles that had been established by the two organisations that preceded it and won many more victories for carers – new legal rights, improvements to benefits, investment in breaks. (You can read more about our recent achivements more...)

Future

There are still so many things that carers need to change and Carers UK in 2008 is an organisation fit to meet those demands and campaign even harder. What is remarkable is that those core values set up in the 1960s – campaigning based on evidence, using the media, astute political lobbying, and placing carers real live experiences at the heart of its work – have stood the test of time and are serving Carers UK well into the 21st century.

The History of the Carers’ Movement, by Tim Cook was published in October 2007 by Carers UK. To order a copy call 0845 241 0963 (price £10) or order online. more...