"Lack of rights for family carers"

I am nearly 70. I am the full time carer for my husband who is 87 and has severe dementia, and lives - as is his right - at home. I am the part time carer for my teenage, autistic grandchild, so his single parent father can have breaks in order to work. I am the 'running carer' for my very elderly mother, who is 99, with severe dementia, blindness, deafness etc, and lives in a Nursing home just up the road. I have Lasting Power of Attoreny for my husband and my mother.

I am exhausted.

It seems the only help I could gain is from a charity, with no actual 'rights' at all.

I do not want to sit with other careers taking tea, at a charity's expense, whilst my overburdened sole parent son, falls for the job of looking after my husband.. and juggling that with looking after my extremely anxious autistic grandson.

I want reliable regular respite. I want it as a right. And I don't want to have to fight for the rest of my life in order to gain such a right. Others feel the same.

The ‘duty of care’ lies with the NHS and Local Authorities. It should not be allowed to be frittered away into commercial enterprises which do not have that overarching ‘duty of care’.

So, we have set up a petition in this area. It is to keep our NHS and social care in public hands and local. This petition begins in Eastern Cheshire, since that is where we live and where I am aware the CCG is keen to make changes for the better.

Eastern Cheshire CCG is also working with the Councils, other CCGs, two hospital trusts and the mental health Trust right across what used to be the county of Cheshire, under a pioneer status awarded by the Government, to bring our services seamlessly together. The petition goes in the same direction.