I don’t know whether I am a carer
Ask yourself if your loved one could manage without your help. If the answer is no, then you are likely to be their carer.
Carers help with lots of things such as accompanying their loved one to appointments, managing the home, paying bills and managing money, personal care, helping with medication, cooking, cleaning, shopping, helping someone get out and about and lots more. If you do one or more of these things for someone, register with us.
Who needs care?
A person may need care at any stage in their life. This could be due to accident, illness, disability, frailty, addiction, mental health or be a child with additional needs.
Is there a charge for your services?
We are a charity but receive funding to do what we do, so most things we offer are absolutely free of charge. There may be a small charge for:
- Some of our days out and residentials (which are heavily subsidised)
- Our Power of Attorney form-filling service incurs a charge
- Our Carers Discount Card has a £2.50 processing and postage fee.
If you’ve found our service helpful and would like to contribute, we are truly grateful for any amount. You can donate here.
I don’t want the person I care for to know I am registered with the service
That’s fine; we only contact you as the carer and support you. When you register with us you can discuss this with your adviser. We do not contact the person that you care for.
I need Care Workers to help my family member. Can you come and help?
We do not provide care workers. However, we can contact you to explain your options around getting care packages in place. Contact us for help with this.
I get Carers Allowance, so I am not an ‘unpaid’ carer
Carers who get Carers Allowance can still register with us. In fact, we encourage it! We use the term ‘unpaid’ to differentiate between carers and Care Workers.
Care Workers are people who are employed to care for others.
Carers tend to be family members who do it because their relative (or friend or neighbour) needs help. So even if you get Carers Allowance, we still consider you to be an unpaid carer and want you to register with us.
I need some benefit advice
Our benefit support is for carers registered with us. So the first step is to register with us then contact us to request an appointment. At this moment in time we only have capacity to offer benefit support and advice to people who are registered with us.
I am not registered with your service. Can I still use the Power of Attorney form filling service?
Yes, anyone, regardless of where the live and who they are can use this service. For more information on the Power of Attorney form-filling service, click here.
Do I need to live in Blackburn or Darwen to register with you?
If you pay your council tax to Blackburn with Darwen council then you fall within our geographical area. Lancashire Carers Service covers areas immediately outside our boundary.
Sometimes, if the person you care for lives in Blackburn with Darwen and you live elsewhere, it can make sense to register with us.
Call us and speak to us if you’re not sure and we can make sure you get the right service for you.
How often will I hear from you?
We’d love to be able to call you regularly, but we simply don’t have the capacity to do this. We have over 6,000 carers registered with us – that’s a lot of phone calls! However, we always encourage our carers to come back to us at any time if we can help with anything. Always contact us if you have any questions, need advice or simply want to offload. And remember to make sure we have your e-mail address so we can keep you informed, and you know what’s happening in the service.
If you have any comments, suggestions or feedback, we’d love to hear from you. Use this form to drop us a line.
