Informal caring in England and Wales--Stability and transition between 2001 and 2011.

James Robards,Maria Evandrou,Athina Vlachantoni,Jane Falkingham

doi:10.1016/j.alcr.2015.04.003

Abstract

Informal caring is of significant and increasing importance in the context of an ageing population, growing pressures on public finances, and increasing life expectancy at older ages. A growing body of research has examined the characteristics associated with informal care provision, as well as the impact of caring for the carer's physical and mental health, and their economic activity. However, only a relatively small body of literature has focused on the study of 'repeat' or continuous caring over time, and the factors associated with such trajectories. In 2001, for the first time, the United Kingdom census asked about provision of informal care, enabling identification of the prevalence of informal caregiving at a national level. This paper follows up informal carers from the 2001 Census in order to examine their characteristics and circumstances 10 years later using a nationally representative 1% sample of linked census data for England and Wales, the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study. The analysis classifies the range of possible combinations of caring and non-caring roles between 2001 and 2011, focusing on the characteristics of those who were providing care at one, or both, time points. Among other results, the analysis identified that, among those who were carers in 2001, caring again in, or continuing to care until, 2011 was associated with being female, aged between 45 and 54 years in 2011, looking after the home, and providing care for 50 hours or more per week in 2001. Such results contribute to our understanding of a particular group of informal carers and provide a more nuanced picture of informal care provision at different stages of the life course.

Highlights

The 2011 Census showed that approximately 10% of the population of England and Wales provided some form of unpaid or informal care i.e. “look[ed] after, or [gave] any help or support to family members, friends, neighbours or others because of either: long-term physical or mental ill-health / disability/ problems related to old age” (ONS, 2013a)
Note that there were more people aged over the age of 65 years at the 2011 Census there has been an increase in the population at younger ages which led to the same percentage (16%) of the population aged 65 years and over at 2011 as in 2001 (ONS, 2012)
The aim of this paper was to examine the caring trajectories of individuals observed at two time points which were 10 years apart, using the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Longitudinal Study (LS), and to analyse the age/gender profiles of the resulting groups of carers/non-carers as well as the care intensity among those transitioning in/out of a caring role

Summary

Introduction

The 2011 Census showed that approximately 10% of the population of England and Wales provided some form of unpaid or informal care i.e. “look[ed] after, or [gave] any help or support to family members, friends, neighbours or others because of either: long-term physical or mental ill-health / disability/ problems related to old age” (ONS, 2013a). Researchers have linked the activity of caring to adverse outcomes for the carer in terms of physical health (O’Reilly et al, 2008; Young et al, 2005), mental health (Taylor et al, 2008) and participation in the labour market (Lilly et al, 2010; Dini, 2010) Such links are not straightforward (Brown and Brown, 2014) and depend on the particular characteristics of the caring activity such as the number of hours of care provided, the relationship to the person cared for and the health status of the person cared for (Vlachantoni et al, 2013)

Objectives

Results

Conclusion