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Meeting of the Parliament 23 November 2011

23 Nov 2011 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Carers and Young Carers Strategy

McLeod, Fiona SNP Strathkelvin and Bearsden Watch on SPTV

Last Friday, I was at the Carers Link East Dunbartonshire annual general meeting. In the past year, Carers Link East Dunbartonshire has identified and supported 285 new carers and has directly supported 689 carers. Each of those carers saves East Dunbartonshire Council £17,242 per annum. That is a total saving to the council of £11.9 million per annum. In saluting the workers at Carers Link East Dunbartonshire, where I used to work, as I should have said to begin with, and carers across East Dunbartonshire, of whom I am one, I want to look at two areas of the carers strategy: carers’ rights and carer training.

The carers’ rights charter, when it comes, will be very welcome, as it will enshrine the mantra, which we often hear, that carers are equal partners in the delivery of care. Like Alison McInnes, I am pleased that that mantra will have a legislative underpinning in the forthcoming self-directed support bill. If the bill ends the situation in which direct payments can be made to carers only in exceptional circumstances, and such payments instead become the norm, we will be able to tackle carer poverty for the first time. As Bill Kidd said, carers live in poverty. We cannot directly address the £59.35 per week carers allowance—that pittance from the UK Government, to receive which someone has to be caring for 35 hours per week—but with direct payments to carers we can help them out of poverty.

With direct payments to carers, we will ensure also that we place carers at the heart of commissioning services and that they have access to appropriate training. Above all, we will acknowledge the reality that carers are doing the caring already. For most of those who are cared for by unpaid carers, be those carers family members or friends, that is who they want to be cared for by, not by the paid care workforce.

The evidence shows that, if we train our unpaid carers, not only are they able to give better care to those they care for, it is better for the carers’ own confidence, ability and health. I make a suggestion to the minister that I have made on many previous occasions and will continue to make. Local authorities and health boards should include carers in their care workforce training, especially in medication management, and moving and handling. I was pleased to see in the carers strategy that the Scottish National Party Government has given £281,000 to carers organisations and that the NHS boards will be asked to make a training offer to carers, because that underlines the fact that carers should not be paying to be trained to do their caring. Carers save Scotland more than £7 billion per annum.

I love Siobhan McMahon’s idea of a carers card, which I was going to suggest in an earlier debate on the back of the young carers card, which I welcome. I am not a wee, shy carer, as I am sure most members will agree, but there are often times when I am admitting my mum into hospital when I would just love to have a card to hand over that would show that I was a carer and would list her conditions. She has certain conditions that I cannot refer to in front of her, because she does not appreciate that she has them. Obviously, I will not mention them on the record.

I know that I am short of time, Presiding Officer, so I will not go into detail about two local problems in East Dunbartonshire that I wanted to raise, but I will put them on the record. The Labour-Tory administration in East Dunbartonshire Council has decided that, for someone to get care from the council, their need has to be severe or critical, so the council has done away with supporting carers and those who need care in a preventative manner. Further, I heard just recently that it is being considered that respite transport costs will have to be met by those getting the respite. I welcome the minister’s announcement of £2 million for short breaks for carers. I hope that East Dunbartonshire Council will think again about introducing transport costs for those accessing respite.

It is difficult to sum up in six minutes all that I have learned as a carer over the past 22 years, but I think that what we have heard in the chamber today will show that personal testimony in this area is powerful and instructive. I thank all those MSPs who have shadowed carers. Tommy Whitelaw has been referred to, and I urge members to look at his on-tour blog, which had me in tears—I had to run out of the committee room. He did it to me again last Friday at the Carers Link East Dunbartonshire annual general meeting, when he showed his blog again, and again I was out in tears. I also refer members to Kris Rodden, a young man of 28, who I went on a walk with on Sunday to raise awareness of dementia and to raise money for Dementia Awareness.

15:56

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Meeting of the Parliament 23 November 2011

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