Emily leads on Carers UK policy, parliamentary, research and media work, encompassing many issues relating to caring including employment. She was responsible for Carers UK’s Advice and Information services for 15 years, transforming the service into a wider digital offer. She has worked on two successful Private Members Bills and numerous pieces of legislation which have introduced carer’s rights. She leads Carers Week, one of the UK’s biggest awareness weeks involving thousands of local events and established Carers Rights Day now in its 19th year. Research and evidence has been at the heart of her work to demonstrate need and how change and practice can benefit carers. She has undertaken over 40 pieces of original research into carers and caring, most recently with her team delivering Caring Behind Closed Doors, in April 2020 – one of the first major pieces of research on carers globally, with a six months on report due in October 2020. Currently a board member of the International Alliance of Carer Organisations, she also chairs the Policy and Stakeholder Committee. In the UK, she is currently a Co-Chair of the Care and Support Alliance, an alliance of 70 organisations campaigning for better funding for social care. She also has been part of the COVID-19 response in the UK, sitting on the Government’s Adult Social Care COVID-19 Taskforce and co-chairing the Carers Advisory Group. Emily has been at Carers UK since 1996 and was awarded an OBE by the HM The Queen in 2015 for services to carers.
Director of Policy and Public Affairs, Carers UK