Meeting of the Parliament 04 February 2016
It is a privilege for me to be involved in the debate and, over the years, to have met and worked with carers, whether those in my family, those whom I knew during my time as a schoolteacher or those whom I know now. Carers are determined to change the lives of those for whom they care and to ensure that their needs are fully addressed. I recognise the importance for them of this stage in their campaign.
Of course, there is a blunt truth: carers’ work saves the state a fortune. The level of impact on carers’ lives, their ability to work, their ability to have time for themselves and the resulting sense of isolation that they suffer is hard to fully appreciate. Across the Parliament there is recognition of the role of carers in supporting their loved ones and in shaping a proper understanding of the needs of those who are being cared for and the needs of carers themselves. Carers have been at the forefront of creating better understanding of the needs of those with disability or illness who need help, and how that support should be delivered.
We have seen great change, from the recognition of the right of people with learning disabilities to live as independently as possible, to the recognition of the rights of siblings and the families of a child with disabilities, to the needs of those living with dementia. That has been driven by carers and campaigning organisations themselves. Joan McAlpine is absolutely right to highlight Enable’s campaign, because it speaks to an issue that is not really about resources but about understanding how the simple things can make a huge difference to people. We recognise carers’ determination to ensure that the voices of those who are being cared for are fully heard and understood.
As someone who meets carers regularly, I know—as they know—that there is a long way to go. Carers still talk of battle and struggle; of being overstretched, with insufficient respite and anxieties about quality of care. We should understand the financial and emotional impact on them and their families. Nobody here would wish to oppose carers’ rights, and I recognise what Joan McAlpine said about the breadth of support to ensure that we do the right thing. However, as I said in the stage 1 debate, carers’ rights must be enforceable if they are to be rights at all. Anything else would be a cruel deceit. The challenge for all of us is to ensure that those rights are enforceable. Over the last wee while we have been exercised by the debate on taxation and the impact on local government of cuts to its funding, but there can be no doubt about the importance of that debate when we reflect on the needs of carers. The funding of local government is not knockabout. It is not an academic debating point. It is about the real world and real lives. It is about care workers losing their jobs and the remaining care workers being left to support more people with less time and fewer resources. Those carers are the people who know how much the cuts will matter.