Richmond Council is set to adopt a new charter aimed at supporting unpaid carers across the borough, with a focus on improving their health, wellbeing, and access to essential support.

The Richmond Adult Carers' and Young Carers' Charter 2026, developed through a co-production process involving over 250 unpaid carers, including young carers and former carers, was presented to the Council on Tuesday, 27 January 2026. The charter aims to recognise and address the specific needs of carers, promoting their health and wellbeing and mitigating the negative impacts of caring.

Key Charter Priorities and Provisions

Key priorities outlined in the charter include improving access to information and support, supporting carers in employment, encouraging collaboration between health and social care professionals, and focusing on the specific needs of young, adult, and former carers. The charter is a one-page document that captures carers' lived experiences in their own words and sets out clear statements about what matters most to them.

Under the new charter, carers will have improved access to information and support, including timely help to navigate local financial advice and benefits support, and opportunities to learn new skills. The charter also aims to help unpaid carers identify themselves and access early support, empower them, and recognise their contributions.

Supporting Carers in Employment and Education

The charter aims to support carers in employment by ensuring that employers understand their caring responsibilities and offer support in the workplace. It also seeks to ensure carers are supported to achieve their goals and aspirations, so their caring role doesn't prevent them from thriving and building a future for themselves. 'Fostering inclusive workplaces' entails ensuring that unpaid carers feel valued and supported, improving their wellbeing and reducing the likelihood of them needing to miss education, give up work, or reduce their working hours. This approach also aims to improve working practices, increasing loyalty, motivation, and retention, with a positive effect on performance. The charter supports unpaid and former carers to bring their unique and valuable skills into the workplace and community.

Collaboration and Professional Recognition

The charter aims to encourage collaboration between health and social care professionals to better identify and support unpaid carers. The expected outcomes include ensuring that carers receive adequate support and are integrated into health and social care systems, ultimately leading to better outcomes for both unpaid carers and those they support. Professionals are expected to recognise carers' lived experiences, responsibilities, and expertise, and carers should feel valued, heard, and involved in shaping the support and decisions that affect them and the person they care for. It also emphasises that carers should receive the right support at the right time.

Addressing the Needs of Young Carers

The charter specifically addresses the unique needs of young carers by including statements such as: 'Professionals recognise I am a young carer and understand how it affects me.' It also ensures that young carers have access to fun opportunities to have a break from their caring role and can spend time with other young carers who understand them. Furthermore, it aims to foster a sense of community recognition for the important role young carers play in supporting others.

Mitigating Negative Impacts of Caring

Mitigating the negative impacts of caring translates into tangible benefits for carers by improving their health and wellbeing. This includes ensuring timely and flexible access to health and social care appointments, providing opportunities for social connection and meaningful activities, and offering access to breaks and respite. It also aims to reduce financial, employment, and educational challenges by providing timely help with financial advice and benefits support, and ensuring employers understand caring responsibilities. Creating 'carer friendly' services and communities is also a focus, ensuring that both carers and those they care for can engage fully in the community, with considerations for transport, safe pavements, accessible facilities, and parking. This also means communities recognising the role of young carers and seeing carers as a priority.

Organisational Pledges and Accountability

Organisations across Richmond will be invited to pledge their support by aligning their practices with the charter's priorities. The Richmond Council Scrutiny Review Group (RCSRG) will develop a formalised mechanism to track organisations that sign up to the Charter, the actions they pledge to take, and report annually on progress to the Richmond Health and Wellbeing Board. The charter will be published by February 2026 and will not result in additional financial implications for the Council, with implementation costs to be met from existing resources.

The charter builds upon the borough's Carers Strategy 2020-2025, which expired at the end of 2025. The charter is intended to replace and revitalise the strategy, ensuring continued support for unpaid carers.

Councillor Piers Allen, Chair of the Adult Social Services, Health and Housing Committee, highlighted the charter's importance, stating, Unpaid and family carers play a vital role in our community often at significant personal costs. He added that the charter aims to raise awareness of unpaid carers and former carers, help carers identify themselves and access early support, empower carers and recognise their contributions, foster inclusive workplaces and schools, improve well-being and reduce the risk of carers leaving work or education.

Councillor Nancy Baldwin, who seconded the motion, expressed particular pleasure at the inclusion of young carers' voices, stating, The thing that I was most pleased about though was the inclusion of the young carers voices. She added that the one-page document says what everybody needs and wants.