Hansard

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 closing line, which acknowledges that young carers should be

“supported to be children and young people first and foremost.”

I commend the two reports that were published in July 2010: “Caring Together” and “Getting it Right for Young Carers”. Both deal effectively with the core issues of being a carer. I believe that that is down to the involvement of carers and carers organisations in drafting the reports. However, I recognise that the minister listened to carers and carers organisations, for which she, too, is to be commended.

Now comes the challenge of delivering on the strategy. Like others before me—and, no doubt many others after me—I put on record my admiration for the role that carers play. Jackie Baillie quoted the £7.68 billion that carers save our communities. More than that, carers provide the personal care that it would be very difficult for anyone else to replicate. Sometimes it might be difficult for the cared-for person to show their gratitude, so the community around carers should ensure that carers know how valued they really are.

There is a lot of agreement in today’s debate, so I will use my time to highlight the carer’s life journey. Before I stop handing out the plaudits, I commend the work of my local carers organisation, Carers of West Lothian—not least because members of it, Mary-Denise McKernan, Paul Weddell and Gill Burns, are here in the gallery—which does an excellent job in offering services to carers throughout West Lothian. In outlining the carer’s journey, I will refer to some of the projects with which Carers of West Lothian is involved, to show how carers can be better supported.

The first thing that we must do to support carers is to identify them. It has often been said that the last people to recognise carers are carers themselves. We have to use others with whom they are involved to identify them as carers. In West Lothian, the Moffat Charitable Trust project has been providing a carers support service at local hospitals since June 2008. Keith Lugton, who runs the project, has been able to offer various forms of support to existing carers, such as a carers assessment, but, crucially, he has also been able to identify and support new carers by working with NHS staff and social workers. However, when I spoke to him recently, he told me that that is not always as easy as it sounds. Some professionals still have reservations about confidentiality for patients. I understand their concerns, but they must also consider their patient as a person who will have on-going needs throughout their care, many of which will be met by a carer who needs support. Keith Lugton is managing to overcome some of that reticence and has clearly identified a number of carers.

I highlight that project for two reasons. First, there are still practices in the NHS and in social work that need to be addressed to ensure that considerations such as confidentiality are not used to the detriment of the carer and the cared-for person. Secondly, Keith Lugton’s post was funded by the Moffat Charitable Trust. I say “was”, because the funding ended in March 2010. NHS Lothian stepped in to a provide a further year’s funding, but that will take it only to March 2011. What will happen then?

Such uncertainty becomes a problem for many carers and the organisations that support them. Once we have identified carers, they might need several forms of support, which could include information, training or respite care, as we have heard. In West Lothian, a carer training development worker offers support. In February 2010, Carers of West Lothian successfully secured more than £37,000 from the Long Term Conditions Alliance Scotland. That funding has allowed a programme of work with people who have long-term progressive neurological conditions, such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease or motor neurone disease, and with their carers. That will give them the knowledge that they need to prevent falling and about what to do in the event of a fall. The funding for Sharan Glendinning’s post comes partly from the Long Term Conditions Alliance and partly from funding for the carer information strategy.

Here is the challenge, minister. Many carers organisations that do a great job in supporting carers and which will be crucial in delivering the strategy spend much of their time looking for funding options. “Caring Together” has been commended, but it provides little in additional resources. “Getting it Right For Young Carers” has been equally commended, but much of the work to deliver on it is funded through the carer information strategy, and guarantees for that have yet to be made.

We have said that we value carers. They will believe us only if the resources are provided to support them and the carers organisations that support them. We know that funding is difficult, but we have a duty to follow good intentions with adequate and more reliable funding.

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