Northern Ireland politicians discover true cost of caring

More than 40 politicians, civil servants, and other key stakeholders attended the event to hear the results of Family Fund’s Cost of Caring report which drew on the responses of more than 2,000 families across the whole of the UK, including families in Northern Ireland.

Minister of Health, Mike Nesbitt MLA, started the proceedings by giving his reflections on the research, before Dr Mark Bevan (one of our Research Team) presented the detailed findings.  

As well as highlighting some stark realities about day-to-day life for many families, Mark explained how some families with disabled children are often caught “between a rock and a hard place”.  Benefits alone do not provide enough to meet day-to-day living costs, yet parent/carers who would like to work more to improve their financial position, often cannot do so because of a lack of suitable childcare.  A key point in the presentation was a video featuring the words of Courtney, Julia and Jackline – parents who had shared their personal stories with us about the financial and emotional impact of raising a disabled child. 

The event ended with the Family Fund team discussing the findings and recommendations with the attendees at the event.  These recommendations included: 

• Ensuring the needs of families raising disabled children are addressed in the NI Anti-Poverty strategy 

• Making sure families have access to grant support 

• Providing flexible back-to-work support for parent/carers who want to work 

• Gathering more evidence about what childcare is needed to support disabled children with high support needs 

• Prioritizing breaks to relieve carer stress 

The event at Stormont was the last of four events – one in each of the UK parliaments – to promote the Cost of Caring findings.  Events like these are part of Family Fund’s public affairs work – things that we do to share families’ lived experience with politicians and other decision-makers, so they can make more informed decisions about support for families raising disabled children. 

A massive thank you to: 

• Robbie Butler MLA for sponsoring the Cost of Caring event at Stormont, and co-sponsors Danny Donnolly MLA and Colin McGrath MLA 

• Minister Mike Nesbitt, for speaking on this important topic, and sharing his reflections 

• Courtney, Julia and Jackline for sharing their family stories 

• All the parent/carers who took part in the Cost of Caring research.  With your help, we can continue to push for more and better support for all families raising disabled and seriously ill children.