Quick summary
You are entitled to a carer’s assessment in your own right, free, whether or not the person you care for is assessed. Cheshire East Carers Hub is the local starting point. There is also money you may be missing, respite you may not know exists, and a number to ring when you are at the end of it.
Start here if you only do one thing
Ask for a carer’s assessment. It is a legal right under the Care Act 2014, it is free, and it does not depend on the person you care for agreeing to anything or being assessed themselves.
It looks at the impact caring has on you: your health, your sleep, your work, whether you get a break, and what you want to be able to keep doing. It can lead to practical support, respite, or in some cases a direct payment of your own.
- Cheshire East Council adult social care, 0300 123 5010.
- Call Derbyshire, 01629 533190, for Buxton, Harpur Hill, Whaley Bridge and Chapel-en-le-Frith.
- Staffordshire Cares, 0300 111 8010, for Leek, Biddulph, Kidsgrove and the Moorlands villages.
If you are not sure which applies, our guide to the council boundaries sorts it out. It matters, because a third of this area is not Cheshire East.
Cheshire East Carers Hub
The main local organisation for unpaid carers in Cheshire East. It generally offers carer registration and an information service, advice and advocacy, support groups and social activities, training for carers, help with emergency planning, and access to carer breaks.
Registering with the Hub is worth doing early rather than at crisis point. Being on the books means someone knows you exist when things get difficult, and it is usually the route to grants and breaks.
Search for Cheshire East Carers Hub or ask adult social care on 0300 123 5010 for the current contact details and referral route, since local services change hands periodically.
Money you may be missing
What | Who it is for | Worth |
|---|---|---|
Carer’s Allowance | Caring 35+ hours a week, earnings under £204 a week | £86.45 a week, 2026/27 |
Carer’s Credit | Caring 20+ hours a week, not eligible for Carer’s Allowance | National Insurance credits protecting your State Pension |
Attendance Allowance | The person you care for, if over State Pension age | £76.70 or £114.60 a week. Not means-tested |
Council Tax disregard | Households where someone is certified severely mentally impaired | 25 per cent off, or the whole bill |
Pension Credit | Low income over State Pension age | Tops income to around £238 a week, and unlocks other help |
Carer addition | Carers with an underlying entitlement, within Pension Credit | Roughly £46 to £48 a week |
Get a benefits check before claiming Carer’s Allowance, because it can reduce a severe disability premium the person you care for receives. Carers UK, Citizens Advice and Age UK all do this free.
Getting a break
The thing most family carers need and the thing most resist arranging, usually out of guilt or a belief that nobody else will do it properly.
- Replacement care at home, from a few hours a week to a fortnight, so you can sleep, work, go to your own appointments or go away.
- Day services, such as Age UK Cheshire East’s New Horizons Centre in Macclesfield, which runs full and half days with a charge.
- Short stays in a care home, sometimes funded after a carer’s assessment.
- East Cheshire Hospice, whose Sunflower Living Well Centre runs an eight-week Dementia Carer Wellbeing Programme in Macclesfield, Knutsford, Wilmslow and Congleton, on 01625 666 990.
- Sitting services and befriending, often through Age UK or local volunteer schemes.
Book respite in advance, before you need it. Respite arranged in a crisis is worse for everyone, and the person you care for adjusts far better to a familiar arrangement than to an emergency one.
Plan for the day you cannot do it
Uncomfortable, and one of the most useful hours you will spend.
If you were taken into hospital tomorrow, who would know what to do? An emergency plan, which many carers’ organisations help you write, records who needs care, what they need, who holds keys, what medication they take and who to contact. Some schemes issue a card for your wallet.
Related, and worth doing in the same month: Lasting Powers of Attorney, while the person you care for can still make that decision. The health and welfare one is the one families most often skip.
Support for you
- Carers UK, national advice line and online forum.
- Alzheimer’s Society Dementia Connect, 0333 150 3456.
- Dementia UK Admiral Nurse helpline, for specialist dementia nursing advice.
- Your own GP. Ask to be recorded as a carer on your notes. Practices can offer flexible appointments, flu jabs and referrals to support.
- Local groups, including the memory cafés and carer groups across the area.
If you are not sleeping, not eating properly, tearful, or feeling resentful and then guilty about feeling resentful, that is not a character failure. It is what sustained caring does, and it is a reason to ring your GP as well as the Carers Hub.
The warning signs of carer breakdown
- Broken sleep, most nights, for weeks.
- Your own appointments cancelled or never made.
- No contact with friends for a month or more.
- Losing your temper more than you used to.
- Drinking more.
- Physical symptoms you keep meaning to get checked.
- Thinking you cannot carry on.
Two or three of these together is the point to ask for help rather than to try harder. The most common reason a home arrangement ends suddenly is not the cared-for person’s health but the carer’s.
Frequently asked questions
What is a carer’s assessment?
A free assessment of how caring affects you, separate from the assessment of the person you care for. It is a legal right, and it can lead to support, respite or a direct payment.
Do I count as a carer?
If you provide unpaid help to a family member or friend who could not manage without it, yes, whether or not you live with them and whether or not you call yourself one. Most people who qualify do not use the word.
Can I get a break if she refuses to have anyone else?
Often, with patience. Start small, with one short visit while you are still in the house, and build. Our guide on refusing care goes through the approaches that tend to work.
Is respite free?
Sometimes, following a carer’s assessment, depending on the council and the circumstances. Otherwise it is paid for privately, and Attendance Allowance can help.
What if I am caring from a distance?
You are still a carer and still entitled to an assessment. Distance caring brings its own strain, and organising regular local contact usually matters more than visit frequency.
Who do I ring when I am at the end of it?
Your GP, adult social care on 0300 123 5010, or the Carers Hub. If you are in crisis and cannot keep going, say exactly that. Services respond differently to “I need help” than to “I’m managing”.
About Visiting Angels Cheshire East
Visiting Angels Cheshire East provides care at home across Macclesfield, Wilmslow, Knutsford, Congleton, Alsager and the surrounding villages of East Cheshire, along with Buxton, Whaley Bridge and the Staffordshire Moorlands towns. You can see all the areas we cover.
- Respite that fits round you, from a few hours a week to a fortnight.
- You choose your caregiver, and meet them before care starts, which matters when you are handing over to someone for the first time.
- No visit is ever shorter than an hour.
- You see the same faces. Our carer turnover is 12 per cent, against a sector figure of 23.7 per cent (Skills for Care, 2025).
- Carers trained in dementia, Parkinson’s, stroke recovery and complex care.
David’s mother in law is becoming increasingly confused, and the value to the family was being covered at the times they could not be there:
“Visiting angels have been a massive help in the care for my mother in law, who is getting increasingly confused. They provide companionship and support every day proving to be very reliable and consistent. They are there at times we can’t be, due to all the commitments of work and grand children.”
David Figg, Google review
Not sure what you need yet? Start with a free assessment
Our free home care assessment is a visit at a time that suits you, with no obligation afterwards. In it we will:
- Ask how you are, and what you have stopped doing since the caring started.
- Talk through a realistic package, including respite, and what it would cost.
- Look at the money with you, and point you at a free benefits check.
- Point you at the Carers Hub and a carer’s assessment first, because both are free and both may get you further than we can.
If you need a break and do not know where to start, call us on 01625 720157. You can also send an enquiry, and you can see what our services cover.
Authored by Kim Blissett, Registered Manager, Visiting Angels Cheshire East.
Published 27 September 2026. Last updated 27 September 2026.
This article is general information, not medical, financial or legal advice. Local services, contact details and eligibility change, so confirm details directly before relying on them. Services listed are run by other organisations, not by us. If you are struggling with your own health, speak to your GP; if you are in crisis, contact your GP, NHS 111, or the Samaritans on 116 123. To the fullest extent permitted by law, GB Care at Home Ltd accepts no liability for any loss arising from reliance on this article.
