Bristol Women’s Commission’s Economy Task Force has teamed up with Bristol Women’s Voice, City of Bristol College, University of Bristol, Fair Play South West and The Women’s Equality Network to explore how central caring is to our economy.
A Caring Economy for Bristol – Who Cares Wins! takes place from 10am-2.30pm on Monday 17 October 2022 at the South Bristol Skills Academy in Hengrove (BS14 0DB). It involves presentations and discussions on the caring economy with decision-makers, unpaid carers and parents’ groups, providers and users of childcare and social care, policy experts, workers in the sectors and trade unions.
One of the organisers, Sue Cohen, said: “Women’s paid and unpaid contribution to the economy was brought into public view by the pandemic. In the home, in healthcare, childcare, social care, education, special needs, women became visible, at the heart of the caring infrastructure, central to an economy in crisis.
“And now the long-term lack of investment in the care sectors is coming into even sharper focus as not only are childcare and social care businesses folding but recruitment into all industrial sectors is collapsing, due largely to the growing reliance on unpaid carers to meet the care needs of children, disabled working age adults and the elderly infirm.
“Investing in care – both paid and unpaid – would also speed up hospital discharges and increase the income and spending power of those living in more disadvantaged areas. We want investment in care valued and recognised in industrial strategies. The time is right. We demand the power to care. It’s not just about wellbeing, investing in care is the way to deliver a fair, functioning, and sustainable economy.”
Register for your free place now here (a creche will be available but will be allocated on a first come, first served basis).
