What steps will the Welsh Government take to improve support for unpaid carers in the sixth Senedd?
We are committed to supporting all carers to continue their caring role and achieve their own personal well-being outcomes.
Published in March 2021, the new Strategy for Unpaid Carers renews our commitment to improving the recognition of, and support to, unpaid carers in Wales. It sets out our national priorities for unpaid carers, including the addition of a new fourth priority focusing on all ages of carers, including young carers in education and employment, as well as proposals for a new Charter for Unpaid Carers. It sets out clearly, the next steps we will take to ensure carers are supported more effectively, including the need to achieve consistency in levels of support between different health boards and local authorities. https://gov.wales/strategy-unpaid-carers
We are working with partners to explore new forms of respite to meet increased demand as lockdown restrictions are eased. In March 2021, the Welsh Government commissioned Carers Trust Wales to work with academics from Swansea and Bangor Universities to deliver a report setting out a potential roadmap for the future of respite and short breaks for unpaid carers in Wales. The report will be finalised by July 2021 and will identify exemplar local and regional models of respite services which have the potential to be scaled up at pace.
We have this week – Carers’ Week – launched a £3m fund to provide respite and short breaks for unpaid carers. It will be available for flexible support to meet the needs of individual carers through a range of person-centred and innovative options, including face-to-face support and short breaks, helping unpaid carers have regular periods away from their caring routines or responsibilities.
The second phase of our successful Wales wide carers’ rights publicity campaign will also be delivered by Carers Wales and Carers Trust Wales and in close partnership with Welsh Government, to continue our efforts to raise awareness, and particularly with regard to the rights of unpaid carers and the support available to them.
We have provided funding of £1m to local health boards and their carer partnerships in 2020-21, with the same available in 2021-22 and it continues to be used to support carers struggling with the increased pressures of the pandemic. It supports a range of projects, including new opportunities for online forms of support.
Our successful Third Sector Sustainable Social Services Grant Scheme continues and we are providing £2.6 million over three years from 2020-2023, to Carers Wales, All Wales Forum of Parents and Carers, Carers Trust Wales and Age Cymru. The four projects provide a range of support for carers of all ages, as well as working with health and social care staff to improve awareness of the issues affecting carers, and about how they may be best supported..
The Integrated Care Fund is another source of support for unpaid carers. They continue to be identified as one of the priority groups within the guidance for Regional Partnership Boards. In 2020-21 we invested £89m revenue funding in the ICF, and recognising the positive benefits of the ICF and building on success to date, we are investing another £89m revenue funding in 2021-22. The extension of the ICF for a further year until March 2022 will enable many vulnerable people across Wales, including unpaid carers and young carers, to continue to benefit from this important fund. The annual report on ICF for 2019-20 was recently published:
https://gov.wales/integrated-care-fund-icf-annual-report-2019-2020.