Age Scotland welcomes National Lottery fund to support unpaid carers

Age Scotland has welcomed new funding from the National Lottery Community Fund that will help deliver training and support to unpaid carers across the country over the next two years.

The award of £108,168 will allow Scotland’s national charity for older people to support carers of people living with dementia and others with unpaid caring responsibilities with accessing vital information and advice to assist them in their role.

The National Lottery Community Fund distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes and is the largest community funder in the UK.

To continue and develop workshops supporting unpaid carers, the first stage of this new funding will focus on engagement with unpaid carers and carer groups. Age Scotland’s dementia training team will be undertaking multiple engagement sessions up and down the country with various carer friendly groups and communities. There will also be the opportunity for unpaid carers to take part in an online carer engagement event.

These informal sessions are designed to hear directly from unpaid carers. They will offer carers the opportunity to share their views on carer education and identify gaps in support.

Katherine Crawford, chief executive of Age Scotland, said:

“It is important to recognise how invisible and undervalued caring can be, and Age Scotland’s training workshops are designed to support the carers, as well as the people they care for.

“This National Lottery Community Fund support will allow Age Scotland to continue offering training and support to unpaid carers, to help them to help the people they care for. There are up to 800,000 unpaid carers in Scotland. Many find it challenging to navigate the care system and to find out what benefits they are entitled to claim.

“In the last year alone, we delivered 165 training workshops to 1607 participants, many of whom are unpaid carers. Our workshops have supported unpaid carers in day centres, dementia hubs and other venues across the country, both in person and online. This funding from the National Lottery will ensure we can help more people, who don’t always identify as carers but can benefit significantly from the support on offer.”

Find out more about about Age Scotland’s training and engagement event for unpaid carers at via our website.