Selma Kadi, European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research
Mirjam Pot, European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research
Informal carers provide the majority of long-term care. Over the last few decades, countries across Europe and beyond have started to implement public policies to directly support informal carers, such as care leaves, carer allowances and other financial benefits, programmes and subsidies for respite care as well as information, training and counselling measures. Although informal carers are only starting to receive more attention from policymakers, and substantial variations exist between countries, this development points towards an increasing recognition of informal carers’ social rights and informal caregiving as a social risk.
For this thematic panel, we invite the submission of papers that deal with social policies for informal carers. We encourage authors to submit empirical and theoretical papers, quantitative and qualitative studies, comparative research or case studies, without any geographical restrictions that discuss some of the following or other aspects relating to public support measures for informal carers:
- Which policies have been implemented and in which ways do they foster the social rights of informal carers? Which gaps remain?
- How do informal carer policies differ across care and welfare regimes? Are there differences in terms of access to social benefits?
- Which effects do informal carer policies have?
- Which experiences have informal carers, policymakers and other stakeholders made with these policies?
- Which actors are promoting informal carer policies and why? To which extent and why are informal carer policies politically contested?
- How do policies address the gender dimension and/or other intersectional aspects of informal caregiving?
- What are the normative assumptions underlying informal carer policies? How have informal carers policies been framed in policy and public debates? To which extent do social rights play a role in the discourse on these policies?
- Is there evidence of any counter developments, where informal carer policies and their social rights have been revoked?