Slough Carers Support (part of the council) held a free celebration event for the borough’s unpaid carers last week at Pinewood Hotel, who sponsored the event. 

The theme for Carers Week 2025 was 'Caring About Equality', calling for an equal society where carers are truly valued, recognised and supported. Carers Week provides a vital opportunity to raise awareness of the challenges facing carers, and to connect more carers to available support.

More than 150 carers attended the event alongside representatives, volunteers, and partners from the local community. 

Ten local organisations were on hand to provide advice and information to carers on debt issues, benefit entitlements, carers assessments, health and wellbeing, NHS support, Adult Social Care, and local carers support groups were also represented.  

The event kicked off with a welcome and introduction by Jane Senior (Director of Commissioning) from Slough Borough Council, followed by a talk by Alex Lapointe from Ways in to Work on equal opportunities in employment for unpaid carers.

Carers were given the opportunity to spend time relaxing with each other in beautiful surroundings, with wonderful refreshments and entertainment. A varied buffet lunch of vegetable biryani, olive and tomato pasta bake, papdi chaat, samosas, pakoras, quiche, freshly made cakes, pastries and fruit was served. The Cookie Jar also treated carers to their freshly baked hand-crafted delicious cookies on the day. Entertainment on the day included:

Thank you to The Pinewood Hotel (Slough) for their kind and generous sponsorship of the event, DJ Amit (from Divine Musiq) for the relaxing background music, and all other local community businesses, partners and volunteers who contributed and helped to make this event memorable for the unpaid carers of Slough. We are particularly grateful to all our wonderful Carers Groups representatives who made the day run so smoothly.

Councillor Anna Wright, lead member for adult social care, said: “The unpaid carers in our borough do an amazing job of looking after family members, friends, and neighbours, and I am so glad that this event not only provides a relaxing environment for them but also lots of information and support. 

“Thank you to everyone who either organised this event or volunteered, in order to give our carers an afternoon off from their caring duties in such a beautiful environment.”