Hansard

I am delighted to open the stage 3 debate on the Carers (Scotland) Bill. If the Parliament agrees to pass the bill, as I hope it will after the debate, today will mark a key change in our recognition of the contribution of carers across Scotland. The bill will also extend carers’ rights in order to improve their health and wellbeing, so that they can continue to care, if they so wish, and to have a life alongside caring. I am sure that we can all agree that those outcomes are worth achieving.

I am sure that colleagues in the chamber will join me in acknowledging what is done every day by Scotland’s 745,000 adult carers and the 44,000 young carers who are under the age of 18—almost 800,000 carers in all.

I thank colleagues on the Health and Sport Committee, the Finance Committee and the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee for their diligent and expert scrutiny of the bill. I extend my thanks to members who have discussed the bill with me and those who lodged a range of amendments, both at stage 2 and for today’s stage 3.

I thank the many key interests with whom I have engaged during the bill’s passage through Parliament, who generously gave of their time and experience to enhance it. I include in that the national carer organisations: Carers Scotland, the Coalition of Carers in Scotland, the Carers Trust Scotland, Shared Care Scotland, the Minority Ethnic Carers of People Project—MECOPP—the Scottish young carers service alliance and Crossroads Caring Scotland. I also thank Marie Curie, Enable Scotland, local authorities, health boards and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities.

I believe that the process of engagement and parliamentary scrutiny has improved the bill as introduced. It was a good piece of legislation, and I believe that it was enhanced at stage 2. The bill that we are debating at the final parliamentary stage is even better, having been amended during stage 3.

Above all, I thank the hundreds of thousands of carers across Scotland—those who have engaged with and helped to improve the bill and the many others who play an important role for their loved ones, their communities and our society. I am sure that the Parliament will wish to record its collective thanks to Scotland’s carers, some of whom care in very challenging circumstances.

The bill does not sit in isolation from the world in which it will operate. Although many of the key drivers for change to support carers on a much more sustainable basis are provided for in the bill, the wider economic, social and educational context in which it will operate is also important.

Scotland has a growing population of older people who are successfully living longer, although often with multiple and complex physical and mental healthcare needs. We need to support Scotland’s carers so that they, in turn, can support, if they so wish, the many people who have illnesses and disabilities or who are frail, many of whom have dementia.

Health and social care integration is one of Scotland’s major reform programmes. At its heart, health and social care integration is about ensuring that those who use services get the right care and support at every point in the care journey, whatever their needs. That includes carers, whether as service users themselves or as providers of care.

We want the health and social care workforce to fully recognise and value carers. That applies to schools, colleges and universities, too, where young carers can be fully encouraged and supported if we value their caring role and ensure that they are children and young people first and foremost. The implementation of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 also has a key role in ensuring that that happens. The Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Act 2013 has an important role, too, as it forms the basis of good support, providing people with flexibility, choice and control. Like everyone in our society, carers will benefit from the range of actions that the Government is taking to encourage a flourishing economy and a healthier nation.

We are continuing to support both adults and young carers in 2016-17, subject to the Parliament’s final approval of the budget. We are providing more than £8 million in 2016-17 for the voluntary sector short breaks fund, health board carer information strategies and other initiatives. Those include a grant to Shared Care Scotland for the innovative respitality pilot, which links the hospitality industry to the provision of short breaks; a grant to the Coalition of Carers in Scotland to work with carers on the integration joint boards and on other strategic partnerships; continued workforce development; a record ninth annual young carers festival; the carer positive scheme, which recognises employers who support carers in the workforce; and another carers parliament.

The bill extends the rights of carers in law. The right to an adult carer support plan or a young carer statement is open to all who fall within the now much wider definition of “carer” that we are legislating for. Many more carers than ever before can request or be offered a plan or statement and an assessment of their need for support. The bill is based on the principle of prevention. Providing small interventions at an early stage or at the right time can prevent a crisis and the consequent breakdown in care. Enabling people to request an adult carer support plan or a young carer statement as soon as they become a carer can result in an early assessment of their need for support and thereby reduce the risk of any need for crisis intervention at a later stage.

Carers have said to me how important it is that they are involved as individuals in discussions about support for them as a carer and for the person they care for. I recognise that. The principle of carer involvement is a theme that runs through many of the bill’s provisions. Carers are to be consulted on an individual basis and also at a strategic level, such as in the preparation of the local carer strategy and the carers charter, and in carer services.

An important amendment by Nanette Milne at stage 2, which was further finessed today at stage 3, provides carers with the right to be involved with the process of discharging from hospital the person they care for.

Short breaks are a key form of support to help carers recharge their batteries, as they often say themselves. With my support, Nanette Milne lodged important amendments for stage 3 regarding short breaks.

The bill requires local authorities to set local eligibility criteria, a matter that we debated earlier. Those eligibility criteria will allow the local authority to determine whether it is required to provide support to a carer. There is a view that eligibility criteria should be set nationally. Again, I refer to the debate that we have just had. I understand that view, but I have concluded that individual local authorities, as bodies that are democratically accountable to their electorate, should be able to make decisions that are based on the needs of their caring population.