Further to the duty in Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 for local authorities to identify carers and provide them with information, advice and assistance relating to care and support, will the Minister state how many carers were given information to help them care in 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/20?
Recognition of the importance of local authorities providing and making people aware of Information, Advice and Assistance (IAA) is embedded in the 2014 Act. The critical importance of IAA also runs through the Welsh Government’s national priorities for carers.
Welsh Government’s published annual experimental statistics show that in
2017-18, 50,452[1] adults received advice and/or assistance from the Information Advice and Assistance (IAA) Service of a local authority, in relation to their own care and support, or that of their friend/family member/person they care for/advocate for. The data for 2018-19, will be available on 31st October 2019. Whilst numbers of carers who received an assessment is captured (available here), we do not collect how many received information.
The nature and level of support that a carer or those they care for may require is individual to their specific circumstances. The 2014 Act is a person-centred, strength-based approach. That is why Welsh Government have also invested significantly in Third Sector bodies such as Carers Wales and Carers Trust to provide information and advice as well as assistance to access social care, so would not be captured by a specific local authority data return.
However, we recognise that more needs to be done to ensure all carers are empowered to access, through a broad range of mechanisms, timely support. Work is nearing completion to improve the quality of data. We will be increasing the amount of data collected on carers as part of our new social services performance and improvement framework. This new approach was subject to public consultation over the summer and will be launched in April 2020, with the first data returns from 2021.
We welcomed the recent Wales Audit Office (WAO) “Front Door to Adult Social Care” report and recommendations. The report provides a clear analysis of the
current picture of IAA provision across Wales and will be a key document in helping local authorities drive improvement and ensure both people who need care and support, and carers who need support can access the help they need. We are reassured that the report recognises that since the introduction of the 2014 Act, social services provision in Wales has become more person centred and that preventative approaches are having a positive impact on people who need care and support, and carers who need support. The 2014 Act is still relatively new legislation with introduction of IAA being a significant change for local authorities, and the approach is still embedding. This report is therefore helpful in identifying where additional improvements in provision are needed, in order to ensure that the intentions of the 2014 Act are fully realised.
The WAO report on IAA, the Carers Wales’ Track the Act 4 survey and the Measuring the Mountain project, plus the forthcoming report and recommendations from the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee’s Inquiry into the Social Services and Well-being Act and its impact on carers, will form part of the critical mass of information and data that will help us, and our Carers Ministerial Advisory Group, start to shape a new carers strategic action plan. Our intention is to develop this new strategic plan for public consultation in 2020, bringing together a set of key issues and actions for driving forward this key agenda.