Member's statement: Carers UK: 60th Anniversary

Member's statement by Ms Kellie Armstrong on 21 January 2025.

MLA: Ms Kellie Armstrong
Party at the time: Alliance Party
Date: 21 January 2025
Type: Member's statement
Business: Members' Statements
Heading: Carers UK: 60th Anniversary
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 4749488

Text

I congratulate Carers UK on its 60th anniversary. In 1965, Reverend Mary Webster, a carer herself, founded the first carers' organisation, the National Council for the Single Woman and her Dependants, and the carers movement was formed. Later, in 1988, it became Carers UK. In the intervening 60 years, there have been significant changes. Many steps have been taken in policy and legislation, but there remains a gender imbalance in caring along with a lack of understanding of unpaid carers and their value and substantial gaps in service provision and support. The number of unpaid carers in Northern Ireland has grown to over 220,000 — one in eight of our population — over recent decades. That trend is likely to continue as our population ages and people live longer and with more complex illnesses. That, coupled with a social care system that is on its knees, has increased pressure on unpaid carers. I agree with Helen Walker, chief executive of Carers UK, who said:
"Unpaid carers are the backbone of the health and social care system, providing care worth £5.8 billion a year and yet for many, providing this care comes at significant personal cost in employment opportunities, finances, and their own health and wellbeing. The last few years have been particularly challenging. The Covid-19 pandemic hit carers hard with increased pressure from lockdown and shielding, closure of services and the financial impacts of a cost-of-living crisis. The aftermath of the pandemic still remains with many services and support still not fully resumed. Carers UK"
— and Carers NI —
"wants to create a society that recognises, values and supports carers. However, we can see from the experiences carers have shared with us ... the huge challenges they currently face in their everyday lives. As a society we must work together to change this. We need to value the unpaid care that hundreds of thousands of people in Northern Ireland are providing and support them, not just in their caring role but also in achieving a balance where caring is not at the expense of their own opportunities and health and wellbeing."
She also says:
"It is vital that we look forward and plan for the future focussing on our theme for our anniversary year – equality today and tomorrow. A future where life is better for unpaid carers."
To that end, I invite all MLAs to come to the Long Gallery tomorrow afternoon to join Carers NI and to hear from carers from Northern Ireland.

416 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.

Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.03 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.66).
No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
Subject area: Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups.
The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.

This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.

Jev’s structured answers

Probability that each statement is true of this text (0 = no, 1 = yes). A criterion counts as met at 0.60 or above.
Question	Probability	Met?
Identity framing	0.05	No
Sectarian or communal antagonism	0.02	No
Cultural grievance politics	0.02	No
Dog-whistle messaging	0.01	No
Controversy escalation	0.02	No
Legitimate policy scrutiny	0.66	Yes
Overall judgement	0.03	At or below not-flagging threshold

Context and attribution (stance)
Option	Probability
No identity-based framing (chosen)	1.00
Reports or questions it	0.00
Criticises or condemns it	0.00
Adopts it	0.00

Subject area (top five)
Subject	Probability
Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups	0.62
Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues	0.31
Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits	0.07
No identity-related subject	0.00
Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials	0.00

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:47 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

Disagree with this assessment?

Classifications can be challenged. A person reads every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.

Challenge this classification