26th July 2010 - Carers and Young Carers Strategy Launched
The Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) today launched a new Carers and Young Carers Strategy for Scotland.
The adult strategy - Caring Together - lays out a ten-point, five year plan with specific commitments to help carers, including:
• Creating a Carers Rights Charter
• Investing in carers training, building on an existing £281,000 investment
• Improving the identification of carers by health and social care services
• Making carers' own health and wellbeing a priority
• Promoting carer-friendly employment practices and encouraging income maximization
The importance of breaks from caring are also recognised with a commitment of £5 million over five years to support and develop new, personalised forms of short breaks and respite care. The detail of how this funding will be used is still to be worked through but the money will be channeled through the voluntary sector and every penny will be used to deliver the outcomes intended.
Chapter 13 on Short Breaks also identifies eight specific action points to be taken forward over the next five years. These include initiatives to identify and export examples of good practice to other parts of Scotland, to find ways of using volunteering to create more opportunities for short breaks, to strengthen the role of the NHS as a strategic partner in the planning of respite provision, and to look at what can be done to develop emergency respite support to carers. Information will be collected annually from local authorities and partners to ensure that progress is being made.
The Scottish Government’s manifesto commitment to introduce a guaranteed minimum entitlement to respite for those in greatest need has fallen victim to the economic downturn and the resultant pressure on local authority and health board budgets. However, the commitment has not been abandoned altogether and the strategy promises to reassess the timescale for the delivery of the entitlement. The successful implementation of the various actions around short breaks, as well as the introduction of the Carers Rights Charter, will we hope pave the way.
The young carers strategy, ‘Getting it Right for Young Carers’ is published as a separate strategy but one which links across to the adult version. The strategy is clear that there are many positive aspects to being a young carer, but they should not suffer the burden of inappropriate caring. The strategy emphasises that young carers deserve to be children and young people first and foremost, and the strategy lays out how services should respond to help achieve this.
To view both strategies and appendices, please go to: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/07/23153304/0
Archive Material
During 2009 and early 2010, the Scottish Government will be developing a new Carer Strategy for Scotland. The strategy will build on the recommendations contained in the Care 21 report into the future of unpaid care in Scotland and will be a joint publication with CoSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities). Shared Care Scotland is on the reference group for this work and we will publish progress reports on this website.
Various sub groups have been established to take forward work on different aspects of the Carers Strategy. All workstreams are overseen by the Main Reference Group and the Carers Reference Group.
NEW: The Scottish Government has a new section on their website devoted to policy and practice developments related to unpaid carers. The website also contains information about the Carers Strategy for Scotland.
NEW....Where is the good practice?
In developing support to unpaid carers, including young carers, in Scotland and in producing a new Carers Strategy for publication in 2010, the Scottish Government’s Carers Policy Branch would like to collate examples of good practice in identifying, supporting and engaging with unpaid carers and young carers. This will help others to learn from effective practice and, through the sharing of experiences and ideas, promote improved responses to carers and young carers in Scotland.
Examples are being sought of projects or services - such as respite care/short breaks - that exemplify “good practice” in supporting unpaid carers and young carers and that has some supporting evidence/evaluation. Some of the information submitted will be included in the new Carers Strategy, other information may be promoted on the Carers Policy Branch’s website pages or showcased in future events as examples of how to achieve improved outcomes for Scotland’s estimated 600,000 unpaid carers.
Examples to be returned by 15th February 2010.
Scottish Government Lead for Carers Strategy:
Moira Oliphant
Team Leader
Community Care Division
Policy for Unpaid Carers
The Scottish Government
Floor 2ER
St Andrew's House
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
Tel: 0131 244 3503
Email: moira.oliphant@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
ARCHIVE
Respite Task Group - 2006 to 2008
As part of the Scottish Executives response to the 'Care 21 Future of Unpaid Care in Scotland' report's recommendations, a Task Group has been established to assess respite provision in Scotland and examine what steps need to be taken to improve the range, access to and quality of short break/respite opportunities.
Summary minutes and other papers related to work of the Task Group will be posted here. More detailed minutes from the meetings are available on request.
LATEST: The Scottish Government has completed its analysis of the consultation responses and is preparing to publish the Guidance in the summer of 2008. For a copy of Shared Care Scotland's response to the consultation, please click here (Word doc). A report from the guidance consultation event co hosted by Shared Care Scotland and COCIS can be downloaded here (PDF doc).Background Papers:
Consultation on the Respite Care Guidance: October 2007- January 2008
The Draft Respite Care Guidance is now out for consultation. To download a copy please click here.
Shared Care Scotland and the Coalition of Carers in Scotland are holding a consultation event on the guidance on the 28th November 2007, in Glasgow from 11.00am to 3.00pm. This event is aimed at carers, service users and advocacy/support workers.
Scottish Executive response to Care 21 Recommendation 20 on the need to improve short break and respite support
"The Executive accepts the need for a strategic approach to respite provision for carers. We have provided significant additional resources for respite in recent years and are focusing performance management on this area through Local Improvement Targets.
We will move quickly to establish a task group to assess respite provision in Scotland; update national strategic guidance for respite services and help develop local service redesign to shift the focus of local provision to preventative, personalised respite care. Whilst the work will reflect the interests of cared for people, its primary focus will be on breaks from caring for the benefit of adult carers. Work on service re-design and establishing better local and national information on respite services will require a significant input from both carers and users. (Separate strategic work on young carers will address respite for this group.)
The group's work will include an assessment of information on existing models of respite provision and need, to inform consideration of the recommendation for additional provision in the spending review.
Shifts towards early intervention and preventative, personalised care are important aspects of Changing Lives and the forthcoming Changing Lives implementation plan will flag up the importance of respite to those agendas. We will also ask the group to assist in informing the development of service redesign approaches and projects to help shift the focus of local provision to personalised, preventative respite care.
The group will review existing respite guidance and update it where necessary to set out what should be covered in local service planning and to underpin Local Improvement Targets for respite services.
In relation to the report's recommendation for a statutory minimum entitlement to respite, we are concerned that this could cut across existing local authority responsibilities for providing care and support in the light of assessment of needs and a prioritisation of available resources. If, after conclusion of the work outlined above, it appears that a statutory entitlement to respite might have a useful role to play, we will reconsider the issue."
Text Size: 
