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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

Simpson, Dr Richard Lab Mid Scotland and Fife Watch on SPTV

I welcome this opportunity to open and close this important debate. My colleague Claire Baker will talk in more detail about child and student carers, as well as about kinship care. Mary Fee and Siobhan McMahon will give examples of where we think that there is a gap between the Scottish Government’s aspirations and the present reality, and Margaret McCulloch will talk a bit more about carers’ rights, and look at some of their effects on carers.

Debates such as this are crucial in demonstrating the problems that carers face in their daily lives, and how we, as elected officials, should do all that we can to highlight the issues and come up with solutions to protect and assist those who care and are cared for. They include Zoe Bojelian, a full-time parent and carer for her son, who suffers from complex medical needs and who communicated with us through assistive technology. He told us that he did not feel that he was an equal partner in care. He did not believe that that was a reality at the moment.

We need to deal in reality. I fully acknowledge the excellent and ambitious Scottish National Party strategy and implementation plan of 2010. It builds on Labour’s previous plans of 2006, and extends them in a very ambitious way. I am concerned, however, that there is a gap between the rhetoric and the reality.

The minister has indicated that we have around 657,000 carers in Scotland, which means that approximately 14 per cent of households include a carer. Three quarters of those are single carers—there is just one carer in the household—and they most commonly care for a parent, although it could be for a spouse, a child or a sibling. Of those carers, 23 per cent will spend more than 50 hours caring for an individual, which is a lot longer than the European working time directive allows. They do all that work unpaid, with little in the way of financial support.

We have quite a lot of data, but it comes from the 2001 census, so I will ask the minister a number of questions to which he may care to respond. The Government’s strategy indicates that

“the views of carers’ organisations will be taken into account in deciding what analysis tables will be produced for the General Register Office for Scotland 2011 Census.”

What steps have been taken on that particular aspect of the data? How is that work progressing?

I welcome the minister’s statement and the fact that he has launched the plan, but I have some questions for him about primary care and health professionals. We know that 28 per cent of households in the most deprived areas contain carers, as opposed to 13 per cent in the least deprived areas. Once again, I ask him whether we will ensure that the resources are directed to practices—such as the deep-end practices—that work in our most deprived areas.

How many primary care co-ordinators are now working with health boards? They are in place already in South Lanarkshire and the Borders, but has the programme been extended? What has been the Government’s response to the welcome results that were published by the Moffat programme? The programme, which was sponsored by the Government, seems to have been very successful and produced a number of recommendations.

Around 37 per cent of carers are over 60, and many of them will themselves be suffering from long-term conditions. As the minister said, the carers assessment, which was brought in by the Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002, is a fundamental part of support for carers. Not all carers will seek it, but they must be offered it. Much of the research literature recognises that there are still barriers to that assessment—for example, middle managers are not keen to assess carers because the assessments will unveil even more need and create financial and support problems for them.

We know that 70 per cent of carers will hide the fact that their health is suffering. Indeed, a survey to be published next week suggests that 79 per cent of the Scots involved in it said that their health has been getting worse recently, and that their mental and physical health is suffering as a result of caring. That is a sad fact, but it therefore behoves us to ensure that assessments are carried out.

Many carers are isolated and experience poverty of opportunity and difficulties with the financial impact of caring. They may require additional heating or special diets, or they may need to refurbish a home that has been damaged by a child with autism. They also need to spend more on transport. A comprehensive assessment is therefore fundamental.

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Meeting of the Parliament 23 November 2011

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