A social enterprise is offering vital short breaks to help full-time unpaid carers using vacant holiday accommodation. Charity Carefree outlines how they can now take a break, thanks to hospitality partners coming forward with vacant accommodation via travel tech platform Impala.
The scheme coincides with the start of Carer's Week in the UK on June 6. Carefree has helped many unpaid carers take a break by working with hospitality and community partners to donate accommodation and provide access to breaks in hotels and holiday cottages throughout the UK.
There are currently seven million unpaid carers working in the UK, and according to research, some 74 per cent have been facing burnout since the Covid-19 pandemic started. A further 64 per cent are unable to take any breaks at all.
Unpaid carers, often family members, provide 80 per cent of all home care. Carefree has joined travel technology company Impala to provide vacant hotel capacity across the UK to offer free stays to carers up to 60 days ahead. This allows time to organise interim care for patients, with Carefree helping to arrange cover where necessary.
Since November 2021, 81 hotels have agreed to release around 2,000 rooms per month, with 950 hotel nights booked by carers so far. The impact has been immediate, with 89 per cent reporting that they couldn’t have taken a break without the initiative and 95 per cent seeing an improvement in their wellbeing.