Grant-making, Support for charities
Why we are supporting unpaid carers
A carer is anyone, including children and adults who looks after a family member, partner or friend who needs help because of their illness, frailty, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction and cannot cope without their support. The care they give is unpaid. – NHS England
The Masonic Charitable Foundation (MCF, the Freemasons’ charity) in partnership with UGLE (United Grand Lodge of England) has given £715,773 to support unpaid carers across England and Wales through the Freemasons’ COVID-19 Community Fund.
The fund was set up in order to respond to communities impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Charity Grants team has supported unpaid carers since before the pandemic but, after further monitoring and research during this period, they found that the number of people taking on unpaid caring roles had grown significantly. As a result, it was decided that one of the three funding streams from the COVID-19 Community Fund would be dedicated to supporting unpaid carers.
It is always important to update our knowledge and understanding on areas of need and how they are being affected.
There are many reasons why there is a growing need for caring in the UK, such as our ageing population, good health care allowing more people to live longer, and the consequences of local budget cuts which push people into unpaid caring roles.
Caring also creates a large cycle of need; through caring, the mental health, financial situation, and physical health of the carer can often deteriorate, which leaves both parties even more vulnerable.
In June 2020, the MCF looked into sector-wide research and found that an additional 4.5 million people were caring for older, disabled or seriously-ill relatives or friends as a result of the pandemic, taking the total estimated number of unpaid carers from 9.1 million, to 13.6 million post-outbreak. COVID-19 had, and continues to have an enormous impact on the lives of unpaid carers, which is why the MCF decided to target additional funding to this area and provide support and respite for carers.
It is a shocking statistic that carers were seven times more likely to be lonely than the average person. With the enforcement of lockdown, shielding, social distancing, and lack of services, can you imagine how much this figure must have increased?
Rather than awarding one large grant to one national charity, Freemasons across England and Wales were asked to identify projects responding to this need in their local communities, meaning 32 projects were funded which supported unpaid carers.
Other areas of need that were funded during this time included: children’s education, mental health, domestic abuse, and homelessness.
The MCF aims to support 28,000 unpaid carers of all ages, enabling them to access crucial support online, tailored advice and information, as well as respite breaks, activities, bereavement, and counselling support. Through these 32 initiatives, the MCF has spent £715,773 supporting unpaid carers; an additional 12 grants have been awarded through our main charity grants programme, which brings the total funding to £900,000.
Without Freemasons generosity and local knowledge, this wouldn’t have been possible; they have enabled us to provide essential projects of support for unpaid carers across England and Wales.
