Unpaid carers occupy a peculiar position in the welfare landscape. They provide services – often specialist, often around the clock – that the formal care system would otherwise be required to fund and deliver. Their contribution is economically substantial and socially essential. Yet the recognition they receive, and the support available to them, rarely reflects the scale of what they do or the cost at which they do it.
One of the consequences of sustained unpaid caring is the erosion of the carer’s own capacity for rest. Taking time away – even briefly, even for the purpose of recovery – requires the carer to arrange coverage, manage logistics, and often absorb guilt about leaving. For many, the practical and emotional barriers are too high. A holiday is not simply unaffordable. It is structurally inaccessible.
Kind Holidays, the complimentary holiday initiative developed by Roy Peires through the IDILIQ Foundation, was designed in part to address this. Through its partnership with the Carers Trust, the program provides referred unpaid carers with access to holidays at IDILIQ Hotels and Resorts on the Costa del Sol – removing the logistical and financial barriers that would otherwise make such a break impossible.
What Unpaid Carers Actually Need
The Carers Trust is a major UK charity working to improve support, services, and recognition for unpaid carers. Its referral network connects carers with services and resources tailored to their specific circumstances – a function that requires deep knowledge of the carer population and the ability to match individuals with appropriate provision.
When the Carers Trust identifies a carer who would benefit from a period of rest, the Kind Holidays model provides a specific and practical response. The carer does not need to research destinations, compare prices, or manage a booking process that demands time and energy they may not have. The holiday is arranged through the charity referral structure. The accommodation at an IDILIQ resort is provided by the foundation. The carer’s role is only to take the break that has been made available to them.
This matters because the population Kind Holidays serves through the Carers Trust is frequently characterized not by a lack of desire for respite but by a lack of capacity to pursue it. The administrative friction associated with taking a holiday – friction that most people navigate without difficulty – is genuinely prohibitive for someone who spends their available energy on the demands of caring. Removing that friction is not a marginal benefit. It is the difference between a break that happens and one that does not.
The Referral Structure as a Design Decision
The decision to route Kind Holidays provision through established charitable partners rather than through a direct application process reflects an understanding of how welfare programs work in practice. Charities like the Carers Trust have already built the infrastructure to identify need, assess eligibility, and match individuals with appropriate support. They understand their populations in ways that a hospitality group cannot replicate.
By positioning the IDILIQ Foundation as the provider of accommodation rather than the arbiter of eligibility, Roy Peires created a program that draws on the strengths of both parties. The charitable partner does what it does best: identifies and supports people in genuine need. The foundation does what it does best: provides high-quality resort accommodation to referred guests at no cost to the individual.
This division of function also protects the dignity of the program’s beneficiaries. Carers referred through the Carers Trust arrive at IDILIQ resorts as guests, not as recipients of a welfare service. Their stays are not distinguished from those of paying guests in any operational or visible respect. The experience they have is the same experience available to any visitor to an IDILIQ property on the Costa del Sol.
Scale and Continuity
Kind Holidays has hosted more than 2,300 individuals since its establishment, across a population that includes unpaid carers referred through the Carers Trust, military families referred through Give Us Time, bereaved parents, and families of terminally ill children. The program has continued operating through periods of disruption, including the COVID-19 pandemic, and remains an active component of the IDILIQ Foundation’s charitable work.
For the Carers Trust and the carers it supports, the program’s continuity is its most significant feature. A holiday that is available once, during a single campaign period, may provide temporary relief but does not constitute a sustainable support mechanism. A program that operates year after year – embedded in a long-running foundation with a stable commercial backer – offers something more: reliable access to respite as a consistent component of the support landscape for unpaid carers.
About Roy Peires
Roy Peires is the founder of what became the IDILIQ Group and the architect of Kind Holidays, a program delivered through the IDILIQ Foundation that has provided complimentary accommodation to more than 2,300 individuals. The program supports unpaid carers through its partnership with the Carers Trust, alongside other populations including military families, bereaved parents, and families of terminally ill children.
