The importance of ensuring the voices of Wirral’s ‘hidden army’ of unpaid Carers are heard
News - 04 June 2025
Members of a Wirral Carer’s forum have spoken to Healthwatch Wirral of the challenges faced by those looking after loved ones living with disabilities and health conditions.
The Wirral Carers Alliance (WCA) was founded and developed in2024 with the support of Healthwatch Wirral, as part of the Wirral Carers Strategy.
WCA works closely with partners including Wirral Council, and other health, social care and third sector organisations, like Wired and Age UK Wirral, to ensure there is an opportunity for the voices of over 40,000 unpaid Wirral Carers to be heard.
The group runs local monthly forums, either in-person or online, to provide the opportunity for unpaid Carers to come together, share their insights discuss what works well on Wirral and explore issues Carers face in their caring roles that needs focused improvement and will soon be launching a newsletter to help Carers keep up to date even if they are unable to attend meetings.
The WCA has a steering group, chaired by Lottie Shaw, an unpaid carer, alongside other volunteers who are Carers themselves, and is committed to driving forward the group’s development and ensuring Carers on Wirral are engaged and consulted when looking to improve support and resources.
While establishing the local authority’s Carers Strategy, Wirral Council held workshops to prioritise Carers being at the heart of the process. Led by the late Carol Jones (Wirral Council’s Carers Lead at the time), the council worked collaboratively with Carers and welcomed Carer membership to the Carers Partnership Board. Not long after, the Wirral Carers Alliance was formed with support from Healthwatch Wirral.
Now with a dedicated website and regular forums and events, the Wirral Carers Alliance (WCA) aims to reach out to as many Carers across the borough as they can.
WCA regularly meets with local services and decision makers, offering a crucial Carer perspective and lived experience in helping the decision-making process when shaping services.
The way the forum is designed aims to create flexibility for Carers to attend in a way that suits them, their preferences and when their often busy schedules allow – something that is crucial for unpaid Carers as they navigate the numerous caring tasks of daily life.
Accommodating the differing needs of Carers is a key theme often emerging from the many discussions the group have had with unpaid Carers, explains Adele Curley, a Carer who also sits on the steering group.
Adele said: “While Carers may have common needs and challenges, there is no one size fits all to the solutions”. It is through listening to the experiences of unpaid Carers that such insights can be immensely valuable in helping shape services that are better suited to Carers’ varying needs.
Lottie said for many Carers some of the common themes that emerge as challenges – such as around accessing services, knowing where to go for support, are almost a ‘given’. She explains: “A lot of the time Carers just get on with struggling whilst caring and only reach out when they are in crisis, we’re often put in the mindset that everything is a difficult fight to be had, this is just another struggle, but these struggles add up.”
The forum is led by and for unpaid Carers who are volunteers and is regularly attended by people across Wirral with a wide range of caring backgrounds – but for Lottie, Adele and the team, the work is just beginning.
“There are many people that don’t necessarily identify themselves as unpaid Carers” meaning the true number of unpaid Carers across Wirral is really unknown. “We’re a hidden army” Lottie explains. “We need to make speaking out as a Carer easy and so they feel encouraged to do so, our communities should not be apprehensive or afraid to ask for help and support”
The group is also keen to make sure they reach out to all communities in Wirral and have been linking in with organisations that promote and work with the Borough’s diverse and multicultural communities to bring as many unpaid Carers as possible together.
Lottie adds: “The forum is for Carers, it’s a safe space, where people can share their own story and carer journey and what it is like to be a Carer on Wirral, whether that is good or not so good. We learn a lot from each other.”
Adele explains it also offers a “trusted voice”. She says: “If you’re an unpaid carer and you’ve found something that works well and you pass that information on, it’s so valuable to other unpaid Carers because you share that insight into the challenges that people face, you understand”. This is especially important in the face of what can be a confusing array of differing information online, Lottie adds.
As the Wirral Carers Alliance has continued to grow during the past 12 months, Lottie said she is particularly keen for groups in the third sector to reach out.
“We’re all volunteers and we have a lot of other responsibilities in our own caring roles, we go where we can and meet everyone we are able to and we’d love for people to get in touch with us, we’re here and we can talk to you about what individual support needs look like for them, this is about equity and not just equality when being a Carer.”
The Wirral Carers Alliance plans to mark National Carers Week in June with a big event at the Floral Pavillion – a Carers Conference that brings together decision makers, public and third sector organisations and is aimed at unpaid Carers across Wirral.
The event, due to be held on Wednesday June 11th, will showcase support services available with a Carer Marketplace, as well as including panel discussions and workshops alongside an art installation produced by unpaid Carers that depicts a day in the life of a Carer; ‘The art of caring through powerful pictures’.
The Carers Conference will be throughout the day and evening to make it as accessible as possible to Carers from all backgrounds and is a free ticketed event with more information available on the Wirral Carers Alliance website.