Caring about Care

Care is the invisible infrastructure that sustains our lives—from raising children and supporting loved ones to enabling people to live with dignity. It touches every person in Wales, yet remains chronically undervalued, underfunded, and overwhelmingly it is work done by women.

While we readily invest in physical infrastructure like roads and railways, we neglect the care systems that underpin our families, communities, and economy. It’s time to stop treating care as a private burden or an afterthought and start recognising it as the essential infrastructure for building a fairer, inclusive, and thriving Wales.

A System on the Brink

Wales’ care system is stretched to breaking point. That’s why Oxfam Cymru, Carers Wales, and the Bevan Foundation launched the first-ever Care Policy Scorecard for Wales - to expose the gap between policy promises and the reality carers and care workers face.

The Scorecard reveals a system built on fragile foundations. Despite legal rights, unpaid carers say assessments feel like tick-box exercises with no meaningful support being delivered. Unpaid carers have told me that they are tired of platitudes of their ‘hard work’ during Carers Week - hollow praise that rings false when the remaining 51 weeks of the year brings no meaningful change, no real recognition, and no support they can rely on.

It also uncovers a major policy failure: although social care workers are promised the Real Living Wage, over a third still face financial hardship—highlighting a lack of accountability in delivery of this policy.

Care: Wales’ Hidden Economic Powerhouse

Care isn’t just a personal act driven by love, consent, or compassion – it’s economic infrastructure. Yet despite propping up Wales’ economy, those who provide care remain among the most overlooked.

One of the Scorecard’s most striking findings is that unpaid carers contribute over £10 billion a year to Wales—nearly matching the entire health and social services budget.

Add in social care and childcare, and care becomes one of Wales’ largest economic drivers. But when care is underfunded or broken, the shockwaves are felt across society. The Covid-19 pandemic made that painfully clear: when care systems collapsed, everything else came under strain. We can’t afford to forget that lesson.

Invariably overlooked in the relentless talk of economic growth, care is the foundation that politicians ignore at their peril. If Wales wants truly inclusive growth, it must stop treating care as a side issue. An underfunded, neglected care system isn’t just a social injustice - it undermines any attempt to build a thriving economy.

Inaccessible childcare pushes parents - especially mothers - out of work. Unsupported carers leave jobs. Poor pay fuels a staffing crisis in social care. An economy built on neglected care is built on sand.

It’s time to fund care as the essential infrastructure it is - because nothing else works without it.

Undervalued, Underpaid, and Overlooked

Despite its vital importance, care remains chronically undervalued and underfunded. Unpaid carers face disproportionate financial strain, emotional stress, and burnout - with four in five expecting their own health to suffer in the coming year. Over 60% of unpaid carers are women, and 26% are living in poverty - far above the national average. These are not isolated issues; care lies at the heart of Wales’ deep-rooted inequalities. If we’re serious about tackling poverty and building a fairer Wales, we won’t do it without investing in care.

The same lack of recognition affects social care. Social care workers, who contribute over £1 billion to the Welsh economy, earn an average of just £24,124. Many are struggling to make ends meet, and a quarter say they plan to leave their jobs within the next year - driven out by low pay and poor conditions.

The system isn’t just cracking - it’s haemorrhaging the very people it relies on.

Childcare: The Missing Link

Childcare is a critical, yet persistently overlooked, pillar of Wales’ care system. Without it, parents can’t work, children miss out on early development, and gender inequality deepens.

The Care Policy Scorecard reveals a stark gap: Wales is the only UK nation without funded childcare for children under two. This lack of early years support forces many parents - especially mothers - to reduce hours, leave jobs, or turn down opportunities, entrenching inequality and fuelling rising child poverty.

While Flying Start offers vital support, the Welsh Government’s promise to expand the childcare element to all two-year-olds remains unfulfilled. Low-income families struggle to access provision, and children with additional needs are too often left out entirely. The system is fragmented, inequitable, and failing those who need it most.

The Time for Action Is Now

Wales doesn’t need more reviews, pilots, or promises. The frameworks for a caring economy already exist - what’s missing is political will. Oxfam Cymru’s Care Policy Scorecard lays this bare: without urgent action, the cracks in our care system will only deepen.

Care must be treated as core infrastructure—mainstreamed across government policy, from transport to housing to employment, and properly funded.

The Real Living Wage must be delivered in practice, not just on paper. While funding is being channelled to care providers, without transparency and accountability, social care workers are not seeing that money where it matters - in their pay packets.

Unpaid carers, meanwhile, continue to carry enormous responsibility with inadequate support. The rights already promised to them by the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 must finally be delivered. There is no excuse for further delay over a decade since the law came into force

And childcare can no longer be the missing link. If the Welsh Government is serious about reducing child poverty and gender inequality, it must deliver universal, publicly funded childcare for all under-twos - and fulfil its long-standing promise to expand the childcare element of Flying Start to all two-year-olds.

Only bold, joined-up action will deliver the integrated care system Wales needs - linking unpaid care, social care, and childcare as the foundation of a stronger, fairer economy and society.

A Shared Responsibility for Wales’ Future

Care touches every life in Wales - whether we give it, receive it, or both. It’s the invisible infrastructure that sustains our families, communities, and economy. Now is the time for Wales to lead, to invest in care, value those who provide it, and build a system that supports us all.

Let’s commit to a caring economy - not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because everything else depends on it.