Meeting of the Parliament 04 February 2016
Amendments 2 and 6 are designed to provide absolute clarity about our intentions: they replace “may” with “must” in sections 6A and 11A, so that those sections will read:
“The Scottish Ministers must by regulations prescribe timescales for the preparation of”
adult carer support plans and young carer statements in relation to carers of terminally ill cared-for persons.
It has always been my intention to bring forward such regulations, since we amended the bill at stage 2, but I hope that those regulations put beyond doubt the sincerity of such intentions. There will, of course, be a consultation on the draft regulations, which will be subject to the affirmative procedure. Again, I give a commitment to ensure that relevant stakeholders—COSLA, local government, carers and their representative organisations—are involved in that process.
14:15The effect of amendments 23 and 26 to sections 6A and 11A respectively, combined with the effects of the existing provisions, would be that the Scottish ministers would be required to set timescales for all adult carer support plans and young carer statements and would be allowed to make different provision for plans and statements when the cared-for person was terminally ill. I understand the intention behind the amendments but, as I set out at stage 2, I am not persuaded that setting general timescales for the preparation of all adult carer support plans and young carer statements is appropriate. Doing so could result in local authorities having to devote a disproportionate amount of their resources to preparing plans in order to meet the timescales, which could limit the resources that might otherwise be available for the provision of support. There is also a risk that local authorities’ focus might shift away from the completion of good-quality plans. Because of the timescales set for some carers, the preparation of a plan will be an iterative process rather than a one-off intervention.
Nevertheless, I understand that carers will want an indication of approximately how long it will take to prepare an adult carer support plan or young carer statement. There is, therefore, already provision in the bill, in section 28(2)(f), that a local carer strategy must set out the authority’s intended timescales for preparing adult carer support plans and young carer statements. That provision has been in the bill since it was first presented to Parliament. I therefore ask that amendments 23 and 26 not be moved.
I move amendment 2.