Policy

What we do

Carers NSW is the peak organisation for family and friend carers in New South Wales. Peak organisations represent groups of people or organisations with specific needs and advocate to governments, industry and the community on their behalf. This kind of advocacy is known as systemic advocacy, which aims to achieve change and improvement in systems, services, policies and legislation.

As a peak organisation, Carers NSW works continually to improve recognition and support for all carers in NSW. We want to create real change for carers by finding out what they need and ensuring that their views and interests are taken into account by governments, service providers, employers and the community.

Our work draws heavily on the NSW Carers (Recognition) Act 2010 and its NSW Carers Charter, which puts forward thirteen principles about recognising and supporting carers that public sector agencies are required to uphold.

How we do it

The Policy Team works in a variety of ways to represent carers. We write papers and submissions, attend and present at meetings and forums, provide advice to a range of stakeholders and work in partnership with governments and other agencies to raise the profile of carers in the community.

Our policy work is informed by:

• advice from individual carers
• input from Carers NSW carer representatives
• input from the Strategic Carers Action Network (SCAN) and other stakeholders working with carers
• consultations and focus groups with carers
• the biennial Carers NSW Carer Survey
• internal evaluations and feedback from staff working directly with carers
• published research and survey data, including the Australian Bureau of Statistics Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers

Our policy work focuses on issues within NSW, but we also work collaboratively with Carers Australia and the national Network of Carers Associations to advocate on national issues that impact upon carers and the people they support.

What we focus on

There are many topic areas and issues that relate to carers. However, we focus our work on a few key areas:

Disability, including:

• the disability service system 
• issues experienced by carers of people with disability of all ages
• the development and implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)  

Ageing, including:

• aged care services, including residential care and community care services
• issues experienced by carers of people over the age of 65, including carers of people with dementia and carers of people receiving palliative care
• issues experienced by carers who are ageing themselves

Health and wellbeing, including:

• the health system 
• mental health services
• issues experienced by carers of people with a chronic or serious illness
• issues experienced by carers of people with a mental illness
• carers’ own health and wellbeing

Economic and social inclusion

• employment and training policy
• how employers can support carers in the workplace
• issues experienced by carers who are employed or seeking employment
• welfare and income support systems
• financial issues experienced by carers
• housing policy and affordability
• transport system
• gender and caring

We place a high importance on representing the needs of diverse carers in NSW in all our policy work, in particular the following groups:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander carers
• Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) carers
• Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) carers
• Young carers under the age of 25
• Ageing parent carers aged 65 years and over

Contact us

The Policy Team welcomes feedback, advice and suggestions from carers, stakeholders and members of the community about problems with systems, services, policies and legislation in NSW. You can contact us in any of the following ways:

Email: policy@carersnsw.org.au

Phone: 1800 242 636 (ask to speak to the Policy Team)

Online form