It is with great sadness that Carers Federation will no longer be delivering the Action for Young Carers service, as from the 1st of October 2023.

There will, however, still be a young carers service through a new provider called TuVida. Should you wish to contact TuVida you can call them on 0115 8248824, or email youngcarers@tuvida.org

Carers Federation would like to thank all professionals and families for supporting us over the years and we wish all Young Carers and their family the best for the future.

Carers Federation offers a diverse range of expertly tailored services to individuals and the wider community.

As a Company Limited by Guarantee, we are reassuringly governed by a Board of Trustees who are themselves either carers, former carers or people who have been supported by similar services in the past. As you can imagine, this goes a long way in helping make sure we are offering the right services to those who need them most.

We believe that everyone’s individual circumstances are indeed unique and should not be compared to anyone else’s. That is why we are sensitive, as well as pertinent to the needs of individuals and communities.

If you or a carer you know have any specific information or communication needs and require information about our services in an alternative format, please let us know. Contact us on 0115 962 9310

Unhappy with our support?
Carers Federation is very proud of the support our services provide. If you are in any way unhappy with us, we want to know so we can correct mistakes and continually improve the support we offer. To help with this we have a clear complaints procedure.
Please click to download the relevant procedure:

June 2023

Carers Federation Ltd has been awarded the Advocacy Quality Performance Mark (QPM) from the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi). The QPM is the UK’s only independent quality performance mark for organisations offering independent advocacy; an essential service for people who need support to express their needs and have increased choice and control in their lives.

To gain the QPM, independent advocacy providers have to undergo a rigorous self-assessment process and policy review. This is followed by a structured site visit for NDTi assessors to meet advocates and the people they support. As well it being good practice for Local Authorities to provide advocacy to people at risk of exclusion, commissioners are required to provide statutory independent advocacy under the Mental Capacity Act, Mental Health Act, and more recently the Care Act. The Advocacy QPM provides them with a robust benchmark to measure independent advocacy services, ensuring they select the very best providers.

Philip Kerr Operations Manager responsible for Advocacy Services from Carers Federation Ltd said: “We are delighted to have once again been awarded the Quality Performance Mark for our advocacy service. This is a credit to all the staff involved who dedicate themselves to the delivery of vital support to people who use our service and demonstrates their professional abilities. The award also independently confirms standards to our wider Stakeholders and Commissioners.”

Gail Petty, QPM Manager and Lead for Advocacy and Rights at NDTi said: “The Advocacy Quality Performance Mark is only awarded to advocacy organisations who can demonstrate that they are providing excellent services to people often experiencing challenging situations in their lives. It indicates that they have the training and policies in place to ensure people’s rights are upheld and their preferences are heard and responded to.”

Originally developed by Action for Advocacy (A4A), the Department of Health funded NDTi to review and revise the QPM in 2014, working with providers, users and commissioners of advocacy services. The application process was streamlined to be as straightforward as possible, while retaining the rigour required to ensure that high standards are met. It is available to organisations providing independent advocacy in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Further information can be accessed and applications can be made via www.qualityadvocacy.org.uk.

We are delighted to publish our annual report for the year: 2021/22. It’s been another challenging year but we’re incredibly proud of all the staff and volunteers here at Carers Federation who have once again adapted to put our service users first.

You can download the report here.

It is with great sadness that Carers Federation intends to close its counselling service in the late spring / early summer of 2022. The service has been available free to carers since 1997 and provided practice opportunities to volunteers with counselling qualifications.

Since 2016 when local authority and CCG funding ended the service has been funded by Carers Federation Board of Trustees through its reserves. During those five years we have sought but been unsuccessful in securing alternative funding and the Board feel continued subsidy of the service is unsustainable.

We are all acutely aware that due to the pandemic, the need to support carers has never been more acute and we have witnessed an increase in referral numbers. This has therefore been a very difficult decision to make and we will honour our commitments to carers in counselling and to our volunteer counsellors.

We are ceasing to accept new referrals from this date and have notified the small number of carers on our waiting list

Please find the digital, interactive version of our 2020/21 annual report below.

West College Scotland (WCS) has become the first Scottish college to achieve the Carers Federation Quality Standard in Carer Support (QSCS) accreditation, Carers Federation is delighted to announce.

The Carers Federation Quality Standard in Carer Support, developed by carers to provide accreditation and training for organisations, helps to raise awareness, remove some of the barriers for carers, develop appropriate policies and procedures and improve access to support. The QSCS demonstrates good practice in supporting carers in the wider community.

With 7,500-8,000 full-time students over four main campuses and five satellite sites, West College Scotland is the largest regional college in Scotland. They provide a wide-range of course and study pathways including distance learning, reaching up to 22,000 students overall across areas of high deprivation with low educational aspirations and achievement.

Naomi Sykes, QSCS Development Worker, Carers Federation Limited said:

“The Carers Federation Quality Standard in Carer Support (QSCS) accreditation demonstrates West College Scotland’s commitment to improving access to education for young and young adult carers.”

The Quality Standard criteria helps schools, colleges and universities develop effective processes to identify student carers and to improve their wellbeing, learning experiences and educational outcomes. Importantly, the process helps participating organisations to provide consistent provision of support and enables them to monitor the collective and individual outcomes for their students with caring roles.

Naomi added, “West College Scotland has developed comprehensive systems to ensure student carers are recognised and supported to achieve their aspirations and goals, raising awareness of young and young adult carers across the college and increasing understanding of the additional challenges they face in education.”

For more information on how your school, college or university can better support carers, please visit our QSCS page.

Carers Federation is proud to announce a new project from Action for Young Carers: AYC: Flourish.

AYC: Flourish builds upon the fantastic work undertaken by Action For Young Carers over the COVID-19 pandemic, providing online cooking tutorials and lessons via zoom alongside local nutritionist and food safety expert, Rupert Aikman.

Over the coming months, AYC: Flourish will provide young carers and their families with more online cooking courses as part of a wider health and wellbeing package which will include exercise sessions, arts and crafts, mindfulness activities and life skills workshops.

The sessions kick off on June 1st with a Zoom cooking workshop for young people of primary school age, and Thursday June 3rd for those of secondary school age. Moving forward, as the lockdown roadmap allows and with careful consideration of the safety of everyone involved, other workshops will be a mix of in-person and online.

“Carers Federation is delighted to receive the funding from the Masonic Charitable Foundation that allows us to continue with and expand our online cookery courses for young carers. These classes have proven to be very popular during lockdown and we’ll be using the funds to bring in additional online activities for these young people and their families,” said CEO Rob Gardiner.

The cooking sessions have been a huge success so far, with 50 young carers and families taking part over the course of the pandemic. The AYC team has adapted to very difficult circumstances and provided an invaluable sense of community and learning for young carers and their families, who otherwise were facing severe isolation as a result of the lockdown rules.

One young carer had a fantastic journey through the cooking classes:

“Thank you, thank you for running the cooking course. My young person has struggled terribly with anxiety over the past year, which accumulated in a long period out of school. She used to come to all your sessions pre Covid but she hadn’t accessed anything in over a year. Until now,” a parent told us.

I signed her up for the cooking course under her strict instructions that she wasn’t going to be on video and the mic was stayed off! The first session, she really struggled to even stay in the kitchen, never let alone engage in cutting or chopping. In fact she was so overwhelmed, she couldn’t be part of the second session! However over the coming weeks, she has got involved slowly which has accumulated in a fab last session this afternoon!

I wish I could have shown you the smile on her face when she took a bite of her burger that SHE made with very little help from me!! It put such a spring in her step! Thank you so much for all the wonderful work that you do with our young carers who often get overlooked due to the caring of others!”

With lockdown restrictions ongoing, many in our communities are struggling to get basic supplies. That’s why our Action for Young Carers team spent a busy afternoon yesterday delivering 45 hot, freshly prepared meals to some of the Young Carers and Nottingham Works Families we are supporting.

But we couldn’t have done it without our excellent community partners. Big shout out to Sewa Day (twitter: @sewaday) for providing the ingredients and thanks to Larwood and Voce (twitter: @LarwoodVocePK) for cooking it all up for us. We would also like to thank Hetvi (twitter: @hetvi_sw) for coordinating our efforts.

Social distancing measures were strictly adhered to and we think they all look rather fetching in their masks, don’t you?

Fashion statements aside, AYC want to let you know that they are still offering support to Young Carers and their families. For more information, please see our Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram and website

If you are a young person living in Nottingham City wondering if you are a young carer, take our short questionnaire here:

Are you a Young Carer?

The AYC team and community partners will be delivering more food again next week.