Write to your MP for the legal right to a Care Supporter
It’s time for the Government to deliver Labour’s manifesto pledge to ensure no one has to go without the support of their loved one in health or care again.
We need your help to turn that promise into tangible actions to deliver a new legal right.
Use our resource below to call on your MP to raise this issue up the Ministers’ agenda, and help us demonstrate how important this right would be.
Find out more about the campaign here.
Tips for your letter
You can find out who your MP is by entering your postcode into the Parliament website. This page will also tell you how to address your MP, as some of them have titles, e.g. Rt Hon.
Your MP might have changed since the general election. If your MP is not new and you have contacted them previously, consider thanking them, especially if they have shown support for this campaign in the past.
If your MP is a member of the Labour party, you can reference that their party is newly in Government and was elected on a manifesto that pledged to deliver a guarantee of the rights of those in residential care to be able to see their families.
In the body of your letter, it is really helpful to include how this issue personally impacts you, or might in the future. Please use this template as a framework for your letter and customise it where possible – obvious template letters can be automatically thrown out/be less impactful.
By citing that you are a constituent of theirs, they are obliged to reply – chase this if after a few weeks you haven’t heard back.
Please share the response you receive with us, as it is important for us to know who has been contacted, and if they are engaging with the campaign.
Template letter/email
[Your full address]
[Your postcode]
[Date]
Dear [MP title and name],
My name is [your name] and I am your constituent. I am writing to you today because I believe everyone should have the right to the support of a trusted loved one in any health or care setting.
I am supporting the campaign by Care Rights UK, Rights for Residents and John’s Campaign for a legal right to a Care Supporter (Gloria’s Law). Every day, those accessing health or social care have their trusted contact’s support or input restricted. We need a legal commitment to ensure we can all rely on a loved one to be our eyes, ears and voice when we need it.
This is something that’s particularly important to me as [Explain key reasons and any personal experiences that have informed this. If you feel comfortable doing so, request a meeting or call to discuss this further].
This right has been personally committed to by Sir Keir Starmer, and we now need to see concrete steps being taken to implement it. People like me cannot wait any longer to be sure that we can support our loved ones and offer the unique benefits only we can. I want the peace of mind that I will have the right to this support if I need to use health or care services in future.
Dan Carden MP tabled the Care Supporters Bill in June 2023, which received unanimous support in Parliament but ran out of time. You can find more information about this issue here: carerightsuk.org/glorias-law.
Please take action to respond to this by writing to the Ministers for health and social care to ask how they will deliver this legal right. You could also raise a question directly to the Prime Minister or Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, emphasising that this is a manifesto commitment of theirs that cannot be forgotten.
I would appreciate if you could describe the actions you have taken to progress this issue in your response to me.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
[Your name]
