Introduction

This chapter presents the key features of the welfare state and policy context, as they affect carers, for each of the six nations included in the book – Australia and England, Finland and Sweden, and Japan and Taiwan – providing a point of reference for readers of later chapters. Outlining similarities and differences between the six countries, the chapter presents an overview of how carers and the support they may need have been conceptualised in the public policy sphere in three welfare systems (referred to in this book, as already explained, as ‘liberal-democratic’, Nordic and East Asian welfare systems).

Chapter One has already outlined basic information about people requiring care and carers in the six countries and has shown that care needs are expected to increase. This chapter considers the policy background and context affecting people of working age who help or care for relatives or friends who are sick, disabled or old, focusing on how far they are recognised and responded to in policy provisions. It outlines the support and services available to them in each country, noting any financial support carers receive and any employment options and rights accorded to them. At the end of the chapter, the focus turns to advocacy and the role played by carers’ organisations in framing public policy in this field.

In each country, giving at least some kinds of care to sick, frail or disabled family members, friends or neighbours is normal and ubiquitous for people of working age, especially, but by no means exclusively, by women (see Chapter One). As the roles and activities of carers have come to the attention of policymakers in recent decades, each nation has chosen to adopt measures covering at least some of the types of support for carers identified in other international analyses (Colombo et al, 2011). The chapter considers three types of support relevant to the reconciliation of work and the care of frail, elderly, sick or disabled people: (1) the services carers can access; (2) the financial assistance available to carers if they give up, take leave from or reduce their hours of paid work (or to remunerate their caring labour); and (3) their rights and entitlements in employment, which may protect carers from dismissal or unfair treatment and/or enable them to vary their working arrangements to facilitate caring activities.