Hansard

I welcome the opportunity to take part in this debate on carers. My family chose to be carers—they made a positive decision to take on the responsibility of looking after an elderly relative in their home. Young carers often do not have a choice, however, and I will focus my remarks on young carers.

It is essential that Scotland’s young carers are supported and given the same opportunities as their peers to reach their full potential. The price of caring for a loved one should not be a young person’s childhood, their access to education and their right to achieve their full potential. Caring is a huge responsibility that involves complex emotions and relationships. For some young carers, it can be overwhelming and can impact negatively on their health, education and ability to do well at school, as well as on their freedom to socialise and share experiences with their peer group. We must do all that we can to provide support and opportunities for children and young people for whom caring is a part of their life and family.

The young carers strategy was welcome as a way to progress the agenda for young carers. The issue now is all about implementation and ensuring that there is no gap between the rhetoric and the reality. We cannot expect overnight changes, but we must be mindful that, although a five-year strategy is perhaps deliverable, five years in the life of a child or young person is a long time and so progress must be further prioritised. The sooner much of the good work that is identified in the COSLA report that was published in August is turned from a pilot into a service that can be embedded in schools, the NHS and communities, the better.

This week, the Education and Culture Committee visited St Benedict’s primary school in Glasgow as part of our inquiry into the educational attainment of looked-after children. We went to see the Place2Be project, which is run by a charity that works in schools to improve children’s confidence and wellbeing. Only a small percentage of children in the school are looked after, but the project was overwhelmed by the desire of children to have a safe, welcoming and supportive environment to discuss their worries and fears. We are rethinking the way in which our schools support the health and wellbeing of children. That type of highly accessible and universally provided service reduces stigma and supports children to cope with their life outside school and to focus on their learning when they are in school. That is a valuable approach for all children, but it also goes some way towards supporting young carers in education, so we should extend it.

It is estimated that there are more than 100,000 young carers in Scotland, but fewer than 4,000 of them are supported by dedicated young carers services. The young carers strategy identified young carers as being very much a hidden population; they are not recognised by services that could support them and often do not recognise themselves as young carers.

The COSLA report this year highlights the groundwork that is being undertaken throughout Scotland to address the situation by improving identification of young carers and information sharing, both in the interests of the young person and by increasing their engagement in care decisions, as the minister highlighted in his discussion of the pilots that some NHS boards are running.

That is only part of the solution. We need to ensure that once young carers are identified and they look to access services and support, those services are available. We cannot ignore the financial pressures across the public and voluntary sectors, but we need to build capacity and sustainability into services. That need is perhaps most acute in mental health. Self-help resources have been developed with a toolkit to follow, but we all know that child and adolescent mental health is a Cinderella service with long waiting lists that does not adequately address the needs of too many young people.

The Government’s motion gives a financial commitment on carers of older people, but can the minister provide more detail on whether the Scottish futures fund will deliver for young carers? What is the outcome of discussions with COSLA and the NHS on their contribution to the fund?

In the previous session of Parliament, serious concerns were raised about the £34 million that was allocated for disabled children and their families. Although the money was passed to local authorities, there was a lack of evidence that it always reached the families and children it was intended for. In his opening statement, the minister recognised that there are similar issues in the delivery of respite care. Today’s announcement of £2 million for a fund for short breaks for disabled children is welcome, but the Government needs to ensure that there is a secure delivery mechanism so that the money for vulnerable children reaches them.

Finally, I will mention young adult carers and the challenges of transition to adulthood. Through the fair to care campaign, the National Union of Students Scotland’s women’s campaign is focusing on the particular problems faced by student carers. We all know that financial difficulties impact on students’ studies. Student carers can be forced to choose between student funding and carers allowance and, due to caring responsibilities, do not have the same opportunity as other students to find part-time work. At university or college it can be difficult to access non-financial support such as counselling, but the pressure of caring means that they may need additional support. There is a need for institutions to be more responsive to the needs of carer students and for the student support system to recognise student carers’ responsibilities.

I will close with a comment on kinship carers. Alongside the clear need for services, there is the reality of the poverty faced by kinship carers, most commonly grandparents who are struggling on low incomes and face rising prices and increasing pressure on fuel costs while they try to meet the needs of a child or children. There continues to be a postcode lottery of financial support for kinship carers. I appreciate that the situation is complex and interacts with the benefits system, but there is a continuing need for the Scottish Government to take the lead with local authorities and the United Kingdom Government to resolve this frustrating and unacceptable situation.

There is much consensus on the issue. Although the Labour amendment challenges the Government on the progress that is being made, we can unite around the challenge that must be met.

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