National Caregivers Day 2025:
Governments come and go, but carers remain… forgotten.
This is the key message on the occasion of the 16th National Carers Day in France coming from the CIAAF alliance for family carers (Collectif Inter-Associatif des Aidants Familiaux), warning of the urgent need for concrete action by the French public authorities.
Since the launch of the national strategy ‘Agir pour les aidants 2023-2027’ (Action for Carers 2023-2027) two years ago, the government has not delivered on the promised measures, in particular the 15 days of respite per year for the most affected carers and the creation of 5,000 new respite solutions.
The CIAAF expects immediate progress on the following:
- The national committee responsible for monitoring the strategy, initially scheduled to meet on 18 September 2025, was cancelled due to the absence of a government. However, carers cannot wait any longer: there is a shortage of professionals in the home and in medical and social establishments and services, a shift towards outpatient care, a reduction in the hours of care plans.
- Access to respite care remains limited and unfair: despite the President of the Republic’s flagship commitment to guarantee fifteen days of respite care per year, the reality is very different. In 2025, the right to respite still only applies to carers of elderly people and is limited to €573.77 per year per person cared for, which is equivalent to one week of temporary accommodation or fifteen days of day care. Not only is this budget insufficient, but it does not cover the needs of all carers. In addition, there are still many obstacles to accessing respite: complex and time-consuming procedures, unclear financial assistance, and disparate offerings depending on the region.
In light of these findings, the CIAAF is calling for:
- A strong political commitment and the rapid establishment of a national committee to monitor the National Strategy, with concrete announcements.
- The establishment of a genuine right to respite, with a guarantee that every carer will be entitled to at least two weeks of respite per year, at no cost, and the development of respite solutions throughout the country.
- An improvement in the quality of the assessment of people’s needs in order to have adequate support plans, particularly with regard to the allocation of hours of personal assistance, to better meet the needs of carers and those receiving support.
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The Collectif Inter-Associatif des Aidants Familiaux (translated: Inter-Association Collective of Family Carers) has set itself the task of ensuring that society recognises the role and place of all carers and defending their interests, regardless of the age, disability and/or illness of the person being cared for. The CIAAF has existed informally since 2004. https://www.ciaaf.fr
