Carers are calling for the next government to properly resource social care legislation so that what is delivered starts to match up with what is promised.

A benefits overhaul, a new employability strategy and the right to respite are among the measures called for in a new manifesto for unpaid carers and young carers in Scotland.

Too often people are ‘left with little choice but to take on care’ because services and support are not available, the manifesto states.

Produced by a coalition of national carers organisations, the document says the recommendations of the recent review of adult social care must be implemented in full to improve the lives of over one million unpaid carers in Scotland.

Another of the manifesto’s key asks is that Carer’s Allowance be fully reformed to help alleviate the financial hardship endured by many unpaid carers.

The “cliff-edge” faced by many accessing benefits who go over earning thresholds, struggle to prove the number of hours they provide care for or whose caring responsibilities end must be tackled, according to the manifesto.

It states the Scottish Carers Assistance payment – a proposed replacement for the Department for Work and Pensions Carer’s Allowance – should be available to carers who care for 20 hours or more each week; a significant reduction from the current 35 hours or more a week threshold set by the DWP.

Until Carer’s Allowance can be fully reformed, intermediate action should be taken, such as extending the timeframe the payment can continue for after caring responsibilities end from eight weeks to six months, and keeping payments going for longer than four weeks if the person someone cares for is admitted to hospital.

In an interview with healthandcare.scot earlier this year, the director of one of organisations behind the new manifesto, Carers Trust, said lockdown had been much worse for carers the second time round particularly because many carers and those they looked after had had almost no time apart in months.

A right to respite must be recognised, campaigners say, so that carers are supported to look after their own health and wellbeing and live a life outside of caring.

Pre-covid-19 there were estimated 729,000 unpaid carers in Scotland, including 29,000 under the age of 18.

The impact of the pandemic though is thought to have meant an additional 329,000 people became carers following the outbreak twelve months ago, bringing the total number of unpaid carers to over one million.

Earlier this year unpaid carer and campaigner Lynn Williams told healthandcare.scot that she, like so many other unpaid carers, had been left “shattered” by the pandemic because of a lack of external help and the impact of shielding for months on end.

Common criticism when it comes social care in Scotland, including in the case of self-directed support, is that what is delivered can differ greatly from what is promised by legislation, and that care is often held back until crisis point.

The manifesto – published ahead of the Scottish Parliament elections by Shared Care Scotland, Carers Scotland, the Carers Trust, the Coalition of Carers and MECOPP – calls for sufficient resources to be directed towards existing and future legislation to ‘bridge the gap between promise and reality’.

The manifesto authors also say all social care charges should be scrapped and money allocated to a preventative budget to reduce the number of individuals and carers reaching crisis point.

A joint statement from both the Coalition of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA) and Scottish government, published last week, outlines plans to end charges for non-residential care “as soon as possible”.

One of the key recommendations – and perhaps the most contentious – of the review of adult social care that reported in February, was that responsibility for commissioning and delivering care services should be transferred away from councils to Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) instead.

With this in mind, the role of carer representatives on IJBs needs strengthened, according to the coalition, with carer involvement in decision making ‘supported at all levels’ including in any new structures like a national care service.

One in five carers has to give up work because of caring responsibilities in Scotland, with others missing out on career promotions and having to take on lower paid jobs that they can fit around their caring responsibilities.

A carers employability strategy is called for in the manifesto, that would include consideration of carers’ access to work as a routine part of adult carer support plans. Local health and social care partnerships should also be required to ensure funding is dedicated to provide replacement care so carers can still work – a move campaigners say should be seen as an investment in much the same way as childcare is.

 

The National Carer Organisations and Oxfam Scotland are jointly hosting an online Carers Hustings event on Thursday 8^th April from 1.30pm to 3.00pm. Click here to book your place.

Read more: New care centre “once-in-a-generation opportunity”; “Significant” cash boost for Independent Living Fund; ‘Top down’ care review plans branded ‘huge mistake’; Campaigners urge end to carers benefits “cliff-edge”; Social care review: The reactions

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