Carers Bill out for views at stage 1

Holyrood's Health & Sport Committee is calling for views on the Carers (Scotland) Bill, which aims to improve the support available to carers and set out their rights in law.

In addition to the general appeal, a special call has been directed at young and adult carers, as the committee is keen to hear whether they feel the proposed legislation will provide greater support to them than is currently available.

Among other measures, the bill provides for:

• the preparation of adult carer support plans,, and young carer statements, which involve identifying the needs and support to be provided to adult carers and young carers respectively;
• a duty on local authorities to provide support to carers where local eligibility criteria (to be set by local authorities) are met, including the provision of short breaks;
• national eligibility criteria to be set (if the local eligibility criteria appear not to be working);
• local authorities and health boards involving carers in the carer services that they provide, preparing and publishing local strategies concerning, among other things, the support they intend to provide to carers, and establish and maintaining an information and advice service for carers;
• local authorities to charge for services to carers.

Committee convener Duncan McNeil MSP said: “Recent statistics show that almost 17% of the population in Scotland are carers, and around a third said that caring had a negative impact on their health.

“The thousands of adult and young carers up and down the country deserve to be properly supported. It is the role of this committee to determine if the legislation delivers on that.

“Given that this bill is all about improving the rights of both young and adult carers, as a Committee it is important that we hear from carers across Scotland on whether they think this bill will make a real difference to them."

Click here to access the respective calls for evidence. Responses are due by Wednesday 22 April 2015.