Chamber
Meeting of the Parliament 28 October 2010
28 Oct 2010 · S3 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
Carers and Young Carers Strategy
I welcome the carers and young carers strategy, the partnership approach to developing the strategy, and indeed the minister’s commitment to make it work. It is worth repeating the statistics. Scotland has 660,000 carers. That is about one person in nine. It is more than the number of people who work in our health and social services. The oldest carer is over 100 years old and the youngest is just three years old—one of perhaps 100,000 young carers. Young carers often struggle. They do not have an opportunity to experience childhood. Sometimes, schools are not aware that pupils are young carers and do not understand the difficulties that they face.
Some people give their lives to caring. One in five give up jobs and career opportunities to look after loved ones. On average, carers lose £11,000 a year through having to give up their work and some 75 per cent are in fuel poverty. Yet, at the expense of their hardship and loss, their caring is of course a great benefit for our society. Paying for the care that they would provide would cost billions, but what support do they get? This year, the Scottish Government will spend £281,000 on carer training. NHS training, by comparison, receives well over a thousand times that amount.
Many carers devote long hours to caring—115,000 carers devote more than 50 hours a week and 21 per cent of young carers devote more than 30 hours a week. Many carers struggle to maintain their caring role while holding down a job. They need support to do both and the economy needs them. Eighty per cent of carers have been forced to give up leisure activities because of their caring and three quarters have lost touch with members of their family and friends. Half of those who provide intensive care have been treated for anxiety, depression or mental health issues.
Carers need support to carry on caring. Carers organisations and support centres are crucial to that support, yet what is already an underfunded sector is subject to more pressure in the current financial climate. I am talking about organisations such as the Princess Royal Trust for Carers, which supports 50,000 carers and young carers through a network of carers centres and young carers projects. There is also the coalition of carers in Scotland, which is an alliance of more than 80 local carer-led groups, centres and projects. Carers Scotland is the Scottish office of Carers UK. It is a carer-led organisation that provides information and advice and that campaigns on carers’ rights. Shared Care Scotland offers a range of services to improve knowledge and understanding of short-break services and the needs of people who use the services. Crossroads Caring Scotland is a national charity that is dedicated to providing short breaks for carers in their homes. I have experience of the support that it can give families. The Scottish young carers services alliance represents and supports more than 50 young carers projects and services throughout Scotland.
Yesterday, carers organisations delivered their manifesto to the cross-party group in the Scottish Parliament on carers. I will wave it about and encourage every member who is here to get a hold of it and read it. They say that just over £11 million would ensure continued support to enable centres to continue caring, which is just over £14.66 per carer for a year, yet funding for all the essential activities is now under threat from cuts. I do not just mean the cuts that are to come, because cuts are already biting. Carers centres have had their budgets cut or frozen and sometimes that has been going on for several years. They are forced to devote precious time to preparing contract tenders for services that they provide, which squeezes what they can do and creates uncertainty and causes disruption.
I thank Margaret Mitchell for lodging a question on carer information strategies. The £9 million funding over three years comes to an end in March. As Mary Mulligan said, that creates uncertainty. Questions remain about how that money has been allocated, and a big question remains about what will fill the gap that will be left by its termination.
We must ask what the costs are of not supporting carers. One fifth of carers say that, if they had more support, the people whom they care for could be kept out of hospital. As I said, the health of carers suffers—two fifths have not had a break of longer than two days. Carers are aware of the economic difficulties that we face. They know that times are hard, but they also know that the failure to recognise their situation, contribution and needs will make it harder for all of us. Cutting back on support for carers will put pressure on health and other services and, in the longer term, will impede our economic recovery.
I welcome the carers manifesto, which outlines the importance of carers and actions that improve carers’ lives. We need to implement the action points in the young carers strategy and ensure the sustainability of services that are dedicated to young carers. We need a carers’ rights charter and we need to fund carers and their organisations. Most of all, we need to listen to carers and provide them with the support that they are asking for on training, work, flexibility for those who work, regular breaks and an opportunity for life outside their caring.
Some people give their lives to caring. One in five give up jobs and career opportunities to look after loved ones. On average, carers lose £11,000 a year through having to give up their work and some 75 per cent are in fuel poverty. Yet, at the expense of their hardship and loss, their caring is of course a great benefit for our society. Paying for the care that they would provide would cost billions, but what support do they get? This year, the Scottish Government will spend £281,000 on carer training. NHS training, by comparison, receives well over a thousand times that amount.
Many carers devote long hours to caring—115,000 carers devote more than 50 hours a week and 21 per cent of young carers devote more than 30 hours a week. Many carers struggle to maintain their caring role while holding down a job. They need support to do both and the economy needs them. Eighty per cent of carers have been forced to give up leisure activities because of their caring and three quarters have lost touch with members of their family and friends. Half of those who provide intensive care have been treated for anxiety, depression or mental health issues.
Carers need support to carry on caring. Carers organisations and support centres are crucial to that support, yet what is already an underfunded sector is subject to more pressure in the current financial climate. I am talking about organisations such as the Princess Royal Trust for Carers, which supports 50,000 carers and young carers through a network of carers centres and young carers projects. There is also the coalition of carers in Scotland, which is an alliance of more than 80 local carer-led groups, centres and projects. Carers Scotland is the Scottish office of Carers UK. It is a carer-led organisation that provides information and advice and that campaigns on carers’ rights. Shared Care Scotland offers a range of services to improve knowledge and understanding of short-break services and the needs of people who use the services. Crossroads Caring Scotland is a national charity that is dedicated to providing short breaks for carers in their homes. I have experience of the support that it can give families. The Scottish young carers services alliance represents and supports more than 50 young carers projects and services throughout Scotland.
Yesterday, carers organisations delivered their manifesto to the cross-party group in the Scottish Parliament on carers. I will wave it about and encourage every member who is here to get a hold of it and read it. They say that just over £11 million would ensure continued support to enable centres to continue caring, which is just over £14.66 per carer for a year, yet funding for all the essential activities is now under threat from cuts. I do not just mean the cuts that are to come, because cuts are already biting. Carers centres have had their budgets cut or frozen and sometimes that has been going on for several years. They are forced to devote precious time to preparing contract tenders for services that they provide, which squeezes what they can do and creates uncertainty and causes disruption.
I thank Margaret Mitchell for lodging a question on carer information strategies. The £9 million funding over three years comes to an end in March. As Mary Mulligan said, that creates uncertainty. Questions remain about how that money has been allocated, and a big question remains about what will fill the gap that will be left by its termination.
We must ask what the costs are of not supporting carers. One fifth of carers say that, if they had more support, the people whom they care for could be kept out of hospital. As I said, the health of carers suffers—two fifths have not had a break of longer than two days. Carers are aware of the economic difficulties that we face. They know that times are hard, but they also know that the failure to recognise their situation, contribution and needs will make it harder for all of us. Cutting back on support for carers will put pressure on health and other services and, in the longer term, will impede our economic recovery.
I welcome the carers manifesto, which outlines the importance of carers and actions that improve carers’ lives. We need to implement the action points in the young carers strategy and ensure the sustainability of services that are dedicated to young carers. We need a carers’ rights charter and we need to fund carers and their organisations. Most of all, we need to listen to carers and provide them with the support that they are asking for on training, work, flexibility for those who work, regular breaks and an opportunity for life outside their caring.
In the same item of business
The Deputy Presiding Officer (Trish Godman)
Lab
The next item of business is a debate on motion S3M-7272, in the name of Shona Robison, on the carers and young carers strategy.14:56
The Minister for Public Health and Sport (Shona Robison)
SNP
We came into government with a strong commitment to develop a new carers strategy for Scotland. The aim was to build on the considerable progress that had be...
Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD)
LD
Obviously, the Liberal Democrats welcome what the minister has just said, but how does she intend to audit the outcomes once the process that she describes h...
Shona Robison
SNP
There will be a robust auditing process, as there always is with the third sector. The third sector is well placed to be able to deliver innovative thinking....
Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab)
Lab
Like the minister, I welcome this debate on carers and the publication of the carers and young carers strategy.As the minister pointed out, some 657,000 peop...
Shona Robison
SNP
I have been quite up front in saying to carer organisations that in the current economic climate, funding such an entitlement is extremely challenging. We wo...
Jackie Baillie
Lab
I thank the minister for her honesty. In the context of the economic climate, perhaps we could discuss self-directed support. A commitment was made to extend...
Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con)
Con
The previous Scottish Executive introduced a strategy for carers in 1999 to improve the information on help and support for carers; to improve local services...
The Deputy Presiding Officer (Alasdair Morgan)
SNP
The member should conclude.
Mary Scanlon
Con
Finally, I hope that the Government will continue to support direct payments.15:23
Ross Finnie (West of Scotland) (LD)
LD
This is one among a number of the issues that are debated in this chamber for which it is self-evident that there is a broad measure of cross-party support, ...
Shona Robison
SNP
I take it from that that the member supports pooled budgets, the level of which we are negotiating at the moment. I take it that the member supports that dir...
Ross Finnie
LD
I will be happy to support it provided that I can see the mechanisms that will support it. Allocating sums of money is helpful, and it would be churlish to s...
Bob Doris (Glasgow) (SNP)
SNP
Over the years, we have gradually continued to get a better picture of the job that unpaid carers do in Scotland, and of the scale of that job, and we contin...
Cathy Jamieson (Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley) (Lab)
Lab
I welcome the comments that Bob Doris has made and I think that it is important that we get some consensus around this issue. Does he agree that one of the w...
Bob Doris
SNP
I thank Cathy Jamieson for her comment but, although that is the outcome at the local level, the premise is completely inaccurate. Way before the kinship car...
Mary Mulligan (Linlithgow) (Lab)
Lab
I welcome the opportunity to debate carers issues. I fully support the motion in the name of the Minister for Public Health and Sport, particularly the closi...
Hugh O’Donnell (Central Scotland) (LD)
LD
As always, it is a privilege to speak in a debate about carers, because they are the unsung heroes of the society in which we live. It might not sit comforta...
Bob Doris
SNP
The member is quite right in what he says about resources and, of course, we always need more, but are the resources that are spent at the local level always...
Hugh O’Donnell
LD
I have some sympathy with the member’s point. All too often, and despite the person-centred planning approach, which many members in the chamber will know ab...
Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP)
SNP
I want to talk about a specific element of caring that Jackie Baillie touched on in her contribution: the thousands of older people who continue to care in t...
Cathy Peattie (Falkirk East) (Lab)
Lab
I welcome the carers and young carers strategy, the partnership approach to developing the strategy, and indeed the minister’s commitment to make it work. It...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
SNP
I call Cathy Jamieson. She has two minutes.15:59
Cathy Jamieson (Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley) (Lab)
Lab
I will be brief, as I have only two points to put on the record. The first is about young people who are in families where drugs and alcohol are being misuse...
Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD)
LD
I am not returning to this place next May and this debate is a good example of why I will miss it—we have heard thoughtful speeches from all sides of the cha...
Margaret Mitchell (Central Scotland) (Con)
Con
I welcome what has been an extremely important debate on the Scottish Government’s carers and young carers strategy, which follows on from a debate on the is...
Hugh O’Donnell
LD
I note what the member says about statutory provision of services. Generally, does she agree that, if there is a strategy in any area of activity for which a...
Margaret Mitchell
Con
Absolutely—and other members have made that point. I ask the minister to confirm how the outcome-based approach will help to address the current postcode lot...
Karen Whitefield (Airdrie and Shotts) (Lab)
Lab
I am pleased to make Labour’s final contribution to this debate on the carers and young carers strategies. It has been an excellent debate, with good contrib...
Shona Robison
SNP
I thank all members who took part in the debate. There were a number of positive and constructive speeches. It is clear that all parties acknowledge the impa...