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Debates about the growing number of informal carers who combine the caring role with paid employment are not new. Chapter three of the National Carers' Strategy states that "half of all working carers spend over five hours per week on informal care, with 20 per cent caring for more than 20 hours."¹ Within the strategy, the government also acknowledges that, in the future, more middle-aged people will take on more informal caring.

The research,² commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Fund and undertaken at the Thomas Coram Research Unit, focuses on people in their fifties and sixties who are in employment and have caring responsibilities. The study makes the links between the responsibilities of caring and the demands of paid employment.

The researchers used three stages of data collection, initially analysing information from the Labour Force Survey between 1979 and 1999. A postal survey of 1,000 people, aged 50 years or more, who were employees or who had recently retired from two local authorities, was carried out. Finally, a number of more in-depth interviews was undertaken with informal carers.

The research found that employment policies were not always clear or apparent to staff. The implementation of flexible working practices often depended on individual managers, rather than being embedded in the policies and practices of the organisation. Concerns related to working conditions, pay and pension contributions were among the barriers to carers reducing their working hours.

The study found that carers, who combined the caring role with work, often did so at great cost to themselves, including ill-health and reduced social or leisure opportunities. Also, carers put themselves under extra pressure to ensure that their paid work was not affected detrimentally by the impact of caring responsibilities. The study also reports that women are more likely than men to provide substantial amounts of more intensive care. Individual carers interviewed were attempting to balance work and caring duties and did not wish to give up either role.

This research raises questions about the future sustainability of the extent of informal care. While the number of older people in the population continues to increase, there is a falling number of potential informal carers available. According to the report the main contributors to this deficit include:

• The increasing drive to retain older people in the employment market.
• The reduction in early retirement.
• Proposed changes to the age at which pensions can be drawn.

It can be seen from the range of findings from this research that the implications are far-reaching and go beyond social care practices alone. There are clearly implications for all employers and their employment policies but local authorities in particular, given that the research focused on their employees, should consider their own practices in relation to employment conditions. Further, there are implications in relation to how carers' needs are assessed and met.

The National Carers' Strategy espouses the need for flexibility, both in employment policies and support services. This research would appear to indicate that there is still much to be done. However, perhaps the most thought-provoking implications from this research are the fundamental issues for society more generally, in how we construct and value the role of informal carers.

¹ Department of Health, Caring about Carers: A National Strategy for Carers, DoH, 1999

² A Mooney, J Statham, A Simon, The Pivot Generation: Informal Care and Work after 50, The Policy Press, 2002, www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/socialpolicy/032.asp

Karin Crawford is senior lecturer in social work, Hull School of Health and Social Care, University of Lincoln.