There are at least 75,000 people in Devon caring for adult family members or friends, according to the 2021 census.

 That‘s some nine per cent of the population and covers only unpaid adult carers, not parents looking after young families, or children under 18 looking after parents or other family members.

 And according to a GP Patient Survey carried out last year the figure could be more than double that with up to 162,000 unpaid carers out of a population of over 800,000 or almost a fifth of all our residents.

This is on top of the people who we employ directly and indirectly to provide social care.

 Almost half these carers spend at least 20 hours a week carrying out their responsibilities, and that’s often alongside working or their role within their family. 

Many people do not recognise themselves as carers - a spouse looking after their elderly or sick partner for example - and this means they can be without support and their responsibilities can affect their physical and mental health, wellbeing and employment.

Before I became leader of the council, I was the Cabinet member with responsibility for adult care services and my admiration for carers knows no bounds.

The county council already provides a range of services, from information and advice to training, peer support, carer assessments, emergency planning, a Carers' Hospital Service and access to respite opportunities.

But I was delighted when, earlier this month, my Cabinet agreed the development of a new high level action plan to set out ways in which we can do more to support our unpaid adult carers and their specific needs. 

One of the ways we will do this is to promote carer awareness among employers and across our communities.

There is already some great work going on in Devon and we want to expand that. For example, in East Devon, Seaton Tramway and Seaton Town Council have signed up to our Carer Friendly Devon scheme. In North Devon the district council has given staff carer awareness training.

Carers often say they feel lonely and isolated but a recent survey has demonstrated the positive impact of the work that Seaton Town Council has done in improving carers' lives and reducing their isolation.

Not only do we need to do more to provide respite breaks from caring we also need to provide wider support for carers to access leisure, sport, arts and culture, education and training, access to IT, opportunities to talk with other carers and encouragement and support. 

Employers can also play a big part in supporting their workers who have caring responsibilities. Devon has a working age population of 475,000 and statistics from Carers UK suggest that almost 3,000 people in our county will have to give up work to care each year.

We know that many will be the most skilled and experienced staff - the 45-64-year-olds at the peak of their careers are the most affected age group. 

By raising awareness of caring in the workplace, reviewing and updating working policies and identifying and supporting carers in work, organisations can retain their staff who are unpaid carers.

And that's not just good for the individual carer and their employer.

Our economy and the productivity of businesses and employers depends on retaining skilled and knowledgeable staff so this is a win-win situation.

Our scrutiny councillors will be monitoring work on this and I will personally be keeping a close watch on how our plan develops. And I can pledge that Devon will also take a strong lead in raising awareness throughout our communities and business groups.