MS, Minister for Children and
Social Care: This Government recognises and values the huge
contribution unpaid carers make to our society and the care they
provide to their family and friends. We published
the Strategy for Unpaid
Carers in 2021. This document sets out our commitments and
priorities for action and our intention was to revise the
strategy in 2025.
The Ministerial Advisory Group for Unpaid Carers oversees the
work completed under the strategy. This group comprises
representatives of national carer organisations, health boards,
local authorities, regulators, the Children and Older People's
Commissioner's office, researchers and individual unpaid carers.
We have been working hard to deliver against our existing
strategy, including:
- Our £9million short breaks scheme will deliver 30,000 breaks
for unpaid carers by 31 March 2025.
- The £4.5million Carers Support Fund will provide 15,000 small
grants for emergency financial support by 31 March 2025.
- Carer Aware and other funded programmes to support carers,
train professionals and drive cultural change to benefit
unpaid carers.
- Funding of £1million to health boards to support unpaid
carers when the person they care for is admitted to or discharged
from hospital.
The Ministerial Advisory Group has been reviewing our priorities
for action in 2025/26 and has identified that these can be
accommodated within the four overarching priorities of the
existing strategy. Our engagement with carers, and reports
produced by Carers Wales reflect carers experiences and views
that also fit within the existing national strategy.
In October, the First Minister wrote to members of the Cabinet
urging us to focus our resources on action that directly drives
improvement for the people of Wales. Our priorities for targeted
support of carers in 2025/26 aligns with the current strategy. On
this basis, I have decided it is more beneficial to target
resource on progressing a robust annual delivery plan for
2025/26, rather than using our resources on a full review. This
will provide a refresh of our strategic approach. We will
undertake a full review of the national strategy later in 2025,
to be in place for April 2026.
