ACE National : Documents & Files

Carers’ Rights Guide
Written by a leading community care lawyer, Luke Clements, this Guide produced by ACE National outlines the principal rights of carers to support from health and social care services
Carers and their rights - the law relating to carers

The Work and Families Act
The Work and Families Act 2006 extends the right to request flexible working for carers and is as a result of years of lobbying, campaigning and research by Carers UK. The Act, which came into force on 6th April 2007, means that 2.6 million carers will be eligible to request flexible working.

The Act builds on the right to request flexible working for parents of children under 6 or under 18 for a disabled child, introduced in April 2003. The Work and Families Act extends this right to include employees who care for or expect to care for adults.

Information about the Act and the Make WORK Work campaign that lobbied for carer’s employment rights can be found on the Carers UK website

The Childcare Act 2006
ACE National in association with the Every Disabled Child Matters campaign (a partnership of Contact a Family, the Council for Disabled Children, MENCAP and the Special Educational Consortium) has produced Between a Rock and a Hard Place, a campaign leaflet that focuses on employment and the challenge facing local authorities in implementing the new Childcare Act.

The Act places a duty on local authorities to: assess the needs of parents of disabled children as well as those of children under the Children Act; to provide child care for disabled children; and information to parents.
The Childcare Act 2006