---
title: "Jersey backbencher fights to put unpaid carers on government agenda"
url: https://www.nsfw.info/feltham-amendment-unpaid-carers-strategic-policy/
published: 2026-10-20T11:00:46+00:00
modified: 2026-10-20T11:00:46+00:00
author: "Chief Editor"
categories: ["Government"]
image: https://www.nsfw.info/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/feltham-amendment-unpaid-carers-strategic-policy-1024x572.webp
summary: "Deputy Lyndsay Feltham has lodged an amendment to Jersey's 2026-2030 Common Strategic Policy to make respite and community support for unpaid carers an explicit"
publisher: NSFW (https://www.nsfw.info)
---

# Jersey backbencher fights to put unpaid carers on government agenda

**In brief:** Deputy Lyndsay Feltham has lodged an amendment to the Council of Ministers’ Common Strategic Policy for 2026–2030, calling for explicit government commitment to improving support for unpaid carers, disabled Islanders and older people with care needs. The St Helier Central Deputy argues that respite and community support must form a named priority alongside existing health commitments on facilities, waiting times and medicines.

## What the Amendment Proposes

The Council of Ministers’ Common Strategic Policy for 2026–2030 already contains a health priority covering facilities, waiting times, medicines and a broader health and care strategy. Deputy Feltham’s amendment would add to that framework a specific commitment to improve practical help for unpaid carers and people who need care, building on the recommendations of the 2026 review of support for unpaid carers and people with care needs.

Crucially, the amendment is not designed to dictate how ministers run services. As the Jersey Evening Post reports, ministers would remain responsible for deciding how services should develop; the amendment is intended to ensure that the review actually leads to improvements during the government’s term, rather than gathering dust on a shelf somewhere in Broad Street.

“Respite and community support are specifically identified because assistance needs to be available in forms that make a practical difference to carers and the people they support,” Deputy Feltham said.

## Why It Matters: The Hidden Cost of Caring

The case Deputy Feltham makes in her supporting report is straightforward and hard to argue with. Caring responsibilities, she warns, can affect a person’s ability to stay in work, maintain their own health and participate in family and community life. For those on the receiving end of care, the availability of suitable services directly influences their independence and the choices open to them.

These are not abstract concerns. Unpaid carers, by definition, provide services that would otherwise fall to the state, often at considerable personal cost. When the support infrastructure around them is inadequate, the consequences ripple outward: reduced workforce participation, deteriorating carer health and, ultimately, greater pressure on formal health and social care services.

Deputy Feltham also pointed to her 2023 Budget amendment concerning financial support for families of children with serious illnesses and complex care needs, noting that it highlighted the additional pressures that arise when support arrangements do not adequately recognise caring responsibilities. “The circumstances of carers differ, but the need for government to recognise the practical consequences of providing care remains relevant,” she said.

## Resources and Next Steps

The Jersey Evening Post notes that improving respite and community support could require additional funding and staff, though the scale would depend on the specific services proposed. Ministers would be expected to identify the resources needed when developing their response to the review and wider care policies.

That is a sensible division of labour: the amendment sets the direction of travel and holds ministers accountable for following through on the review’s recommendations, without micromanaging the detail. Whether the Council of Ministers will accept the amendment or resist the additional commitment remains to be seen when the Strategic Policy comes before the States Assembly.

## The NSFW Perspective

There is something quietly telling about the fact that a backbencher has to lodge an amendment simply to ensure that unpaid carers, the people who save the government enormous sums every year by looking after vulnerable family members at home, appear as an explicit priority in a four-year strategic plan. One might have thought that would be a given.

To be fair to Deputy Feltham, she has framed this carefully. She is not demanding a blank cheque or a new quango; she is asking ministers to follow through on a review that has already been conducted and to make that commitment visible in the government’s own strategic document. That is a modest ask, and the argument for it is compelling. Unpaid carers are, in effect, a subsidy to the public purse. Treating their needs as an afterthought is both poor policy and poor economics. Whether the Council of Ministers sees it that way will be the real test.

*Source: [Jersey Evening Post](https://jerseyeveningpost.com/news/2026/10/20/call-to-make-support-for-unpaid-carers-a-government-priority)*