Young Carers
Support for children and young people aged under eighteen whose life is in some way restricted due to a caring role.
Adult Carers
Do you provide help and support for a partner, child, relative, or friend who otherwise couldn't manage?
Day Care
Providing a regular day out for older people who need help and support. Giving family carers a few hours break.
Activity Groups
Keeping Active and Active Minds groups for people with mild to moderate dementia or memory problems.
Covid-19 vaccinations for Carers
Updated 11 March 2021
Further guidance has been released outlining how unpaid Carers are going to be identified and invited to receive the vaccine as part of Priority group 6.
If a Carer is already registered at their GP practice as a Carer, or receives Carers Allowance or is known to their local authority as a Carer then they will be invited for a vaccine.
Group 6 is for adults aged 16 to 65 who are in an at-risk group - and Carers who receive Carers Allowance or are somebody's main Carer are included in this. You will need to ensure your GP practice knows you are a Carer by registering with them. You should not assume you're registered because the practice knows you care for someone; you need to formally register using the practice's registration form or process.
If you're an unpaid Carer who hasn't registered in any of these ways then you are invited to register with us directly here at AfFC. You can call us on 0300 770 8090, email care@affc.org.uk or live chat with us at www.affc.org.uk.
So our message is clear – identify yourself as a Carer – with your GP or the local authority or with us and this will help you to receive the invitation to book a vaccination.
Further information is available by clicking this link to the Covid-19 vaccine deployment programme: unpaid carers (JCVI priority cohort 6).
Worth knowing - if the person you care for has fluctuating capacity, you have the right to ask to be present during the vaccination process.
Carers UK has provided the following guidance and downloads for registering as an unpaid Carer with your GP:
A number of GP surgeries have a simple form on their website to help you register as a Carer, but we have heard that this is not always the case.
It is more important than ever to be identified as an unpaid Carer to ensure that you are correctly prioritised in group 6 for the coronavirus vaccine. Below are some helpful letter templates to help you register with your GP, please click on the relevant link below to download the template that you require.
Please note, these templates refer to legislation in England, but can be adapted for use across the UK.
Template letter to register with your GP (email version)
Click here to download Word document
Click here to download PDF document
Template letter to register with your GP (print and post version)
Responding to the Covid-19 Pandemic
Action for Family Carers is your local charity for unpaid Carers and families in Essex. All our staff and volunteers live in Essex - this is our community and we care about it and the people and families that live here.
We have continued to support Carers and families across Essex throughout the pandemic and lockdown whether over the phone, using online platforms such as Zoom or face to face where safe to do so. We closely monitor the changing situation and follow the current public health information and advice.
We recognise that this is an especially difficult time for Carers and their families. We are saddened then that we have had to once again suspend our face to face activities including Day Care for older people and Activity Groups for people with dementia. We hope to reopen our centres once again as soon as it is safe to do so with social distancing, full use of appropriate PPE and strict cleaning regimes. In the meantime we will keep in regular contact with our service users and support in any way we can.
Services running as usual include our countywide Feeling Good Caring Well programme, Carer counselling and Essex Befriends services which all help improve Carers' health and wellbeing and the New Work Challenge is supporting Carers who want to return to work or training. We continue to support Young Carers and to bring them together online, whilst hoping and planning to reopen our Young Carer clubs when it is safe to do so.
We rely on volunteers so please contact us if you are able to help in any way - even a single phone call a week can make a huge difference to a person feeling lonely or isolated, as many people and families do at the moment.
For more information about how we can help you please call us on 0300 770 80 90, email care@affc.org.uk or complete the form via Contact Us on this website. If you or the person you look after is feeling unwell with symptoms similar to those associated with coronavirus please see the information on the NHS website and NHS 111 online and follow their advice.
Action for Family Carers
Action for Family Carers is an Essex charity, which for almost 30 years has been providing information and support to carers who have unpaid, caring responsibilities for others.
We are a Carers Trust Network Partner, Centre of Excellence and hold NCVO's PQASSO Level 3 Quality Mark.
We provide information, befriending, counselling, volunteering opportunities and respite day care across the county,
working within schools and a variety of community settings.
How You Can Support Us
There are 180,000 unpaid Carers in Essex that need our help and support.
Over 30,000 Carers in Essex provide unpaid care for over 50 hours per week. Please help us to give them support - and to give them a break! Thank you
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