Thursday 19 November is Carers Rights Day. This year, Carers UK is asking a simple question: someone you know is a carer, but do they know it yet?

It’s a question every adult social care team will recognise. As Carers UK points out, most people who look after a relative, partner or friend don’t see themselves as carers. They think of themselves as a son or daughter, a husband or wife, a good friend. And CQC’s first national review of councils found that carers are often only identified when they reach crisis.

Why recognition comes first

Under the Care Act 2014, unpaid carers have the right to a carer’s assessment from their council. But that right only helps people who know it applies to them. Identification is the first step, and often the hardest.

CQC’s report on its local authority assessments, published in July 2026, found large variations in how unpaid carers are identified and supported from one area to the next. It described uneven identification of carers as a persistent and systemic issue, and found delays in assessments affecting both people who need care and their unpaid carers.

So how can councils help carers recognise their role sooner? Three approaches stand out.

1. Use the words carers use

People don’t search for “carer’s assessment” if they don’t think of themselves as carers. Information that starts from everyday situations, such as “Do you help someone with shopping, appointments or medication?”, lets people see themselves in it.

2. Offer a front door that’s always open

Carers fit caring around work, family and the person they support. Phone lines with opening hours, and waits for a call back, don’t always fit around that.

A digital starting point that carers can use at 10pm, on their phone, at their own pace, and come back to later, removes a barrier at exactly the moment someone is ready to ask. It also needs to be accessible: plain language, short explanations, and formats that work for people who prefer not to read long text.

3. Design it with carers

The people best placed to say what makes support easy to find are carers themselves. Involving carers and local carers’ organisations in designing information and assessment tools, from the questions asked to the words used, helps make sure the result works for the people it’s meant for.

How Kent and Kirklees approached it

Kent County Council and Kirklees Council brought these ideas together when they worked with local carers’ organisations, carers and Infoshare+ to co-design BetterCare Support: Carers, a digital self-assessment for unpaid carers.

The tool helps people to:

  • recognise their caring role and understand their rights under the Care Act
  • explore how caring affects them, guided by short animations with transcripts
  • find support, or ask the council for a full carer’s assessment when they’re ready

It works on phones, tablets and computers, and carers can use it at any time and complete it over more than one session. Kent’s project involved carers in feedback on the tool’s design, language and usability, and its learning highlights the importance of considering digital inclusion and accessibility from the outset.

Reaching carers sooner

Carers Rights Day is a good moment to ask: how easy is it for someone in our area to realise they’re a carer, and to take a first step towards support?

If you’re reviewing how your council identifies and reaches unpaid carers, book a discovery call to see how BetterCare Support: Carers could work for your citizens.

Read more about BetterCare Support: Carers here.