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Meeting of the Parliament 28 October 2010

28 Oct 2010 · S3 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Carers and Young Carers Strategy

Robison, Shona SNP Dundee East Watch on SPTV

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 impact that caring can have on carers and young carers and that they appreciate the need to improve and extend much-needed support.

I will pick up on a number of the speeches that were made. If I do not pick up on them all, I will write to those members to whom I do not respond.

First, I will say a bit about implementation, because a number of members raised that issue. Our intention is to establish an implementation and monitoring group, which will meet for the first time next month. It will comprise key partners from a range of organisations who will build on the work of the earlier steering groups. Our partners in implementation will include the national carer organisations, whose services and support make a significant difference to the lives of many of Scotland’s unpaid carers. That will ensure that they have clear oversight of the progress that is made as the strategy is implemented.

As I said at the outset, we produced the strategy jointly with COSLA, whose members recognise the key contribution that they can make to delivering many of its action points and outcomes, whether through teachers identifying and supporting young carers, schools adopting more young carer-friendly policies and practices, or social workers offering assessment and support to carers. COSLA’s involvement in the implementation and monitoring group will be key.

The NHS will also be represented on the group. When I met NHS board chairs last month, I highlighted the important contribution that NHS boards can make to delivering improvements for unpaid carers and young carers.

I referred earlier to the fact that the development of the strategy was a joint effort. Members can be assured that its implementation and the delivery of the improved outcomes that it seeks to achieve will also very much be a joint effort.

I confirm to members that I am happy to report to Parliament on progress on both strategies. We can discuss further how often that should be, but I am happy to commit to that.

A number of members mentioned the carer information strategy moneys. As I said at the outset, that is a priority for the spending review. I recognise the importance of the CIS moneys for supporting carers centres and a number of other important initiatives to support carers in local settings. However, we should recognise that local authorities also support carers centres, and it is important that we make progress on that jointly, because I would not want one lot of public money to replace other public money that has been lost in the system. Those discussions will have to take place locally, but I get a sense that carers centres are recognised for the work that they do.

Jackie Baillie raised the specific issue of the self-directed support bill, which will be published in the very near future. I will correct what she said. The delay is not because of a tussle between the Scottish Government and COSLA over resources. I am sure that Jackie Baillie understands that the whole premise behind self-directed support is to use the existing resources in the system better. The test sites have shown that resources can be saved. As I have told Jackie Baillie before, the reason for the delay was that stakeholders had fundamental issues with the default position in the bill being self-directed support and unintended consequences of that. It is important that those issues are resolved should that remain one of the key planks of the bill. It was felt that more time was necessary to try to get agreement among stakeholders.

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Meeting of the Parliament 28 October 2010

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