How many unpaid carers in Wales have made use of the national short breaks scheme?
Regional Partnership Boards, local authorities and the third sector are working together to deliver a range of creative and innovative short break opportunities across Wales that meets the needs of carers and promotes good practice. Carers Trust Wales is the national coordinating body for the scheme, which is worth £9m over three years, (2022-25). The intention is to deliver 30,000 short breaks to carers over this time.
Of the seven Regional Partnership Boards, six have confirmed that a total of 4376 unpaid carers have received short breaks from the funding from April to September 2023. The expectation is that numbers in the second half of the year will exceed those for the first half.
The Amser programme is part of the short breaks scheme and provides third sector organisations, through Carers Trust Wales, with funding to deliver a range of short break opportunities across all local authority areas in Wales. Thirty organisations have been awarded funding since this aspect of the scheme began in April 2023.
From April to September 2023, the Amser programme had provided an additional 3441 unpaid carers with a short break.
This comprised 2,411 adult carers, 112 young adult carers and 918 young carers. Over 1000 carers were not previously known to services, evidencing the value of the scheme, not just in providing much needed breaks from caring roles but in raising awareness of support services for carers more generally. This part of the overall short breaks fund is on track to deliver short break opportunities to 14,000 carers by April 2025.
Carers Trust Wales have commissioned a pilot project across Rhonda Cynon Taf and Merthyr Tydfil. These local authority areas were identified as having lower numbers of projects reaching a smaller number of carers (per head of carer population) and a relatively higher level of multiple deprivation. Carers Trust has worked with the local authorities and the two local County Voluntary Councils and identified a lead organisation who will manage the funding to grass roots organisations supporting unpaid carers in those areas. This approach will be evaluated next year.