Will the Minister explain what steps the Welsh Government is taking to improve direct support for carers, and state how much money will be allocated to help carers in 2019/20, 2020/21, and 2021/22, separately?
Welsh Government is taking practical steps to progress the three national priorities and provide direct support and funding of projects for carers. We have established the Carers Ministerial Advisory Group to support this work.
For 2019-20 we have committed £1.095m in direct funding, including £1m to each of the Welsh local health boards to work with their partners to deliver against the three national carers priorities. £95,000 will fund third sector carers organisations including Children in Wales and Carers Trust Wales, alongside supporting the work of the Carers Ministerial Advisory Group.
Funding under the Third Sector Sustainable Social Services grant is allocated to projects in support of carers, and in 2019-20, over £400k in total has been awarded to Carers Trust Wales and Carers Wales, to improve awareness of carers rights, engagement with statutory bodies and research.
In November 2018, additional funding to support carers was announced within a larger investment of an extra £15m in the Integrated Care Fund (ICF). This is for adults with care and support needs and for carers. Welsh Government guidance sets a clear expectation that additional direct support for carers should be delivered, including additional respite services. For 2019-20, £200k has also been allocated to implement a new national Young Carers ID cards scheme.
Whilst the overall Welsh Government budget for 2020-21 has not yet been set Indicative ICF revenue allocations have been advised to Regional Partnership Boards for 2020-21.
These allocations have been made in the context of the UK government’s austerity policies, that have had a significant impact on the resources available to the Welsh Government. Whilst Welsh Government has done all we can to protect funding for local government and other public services that support carers, this has inevitably been constrained by UK Government austerity.