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.
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, including via our Policy Advice Form
- 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 care for.
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:
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)
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Forums and committees
Carers NSW is represented on a number of forums and committees. -
Policy papers and submissions
Publishing papers and preparing written submissions are the main ways our Policy Team tells the NSW and Australian governments about what carers need.