In Carers Week 2018 (June 11-17), Welsh Conservatives yesterday put forward a motion calling for the National Assembly for Wales to recognise the vital contribution made to Welsh society by the roles undertaken by Wales’s estimated 370,000 unpaid carers of all ages.
They also called on the Welsh Government to implement the Welsh Conservative policy for a Young Carers Future Grant, which would ensure young carers are supported to pursue further and higher full time education and training opportunities, to introduce a right to respite for both carers and those they care for, and to publish figures for how many carers' needs have been assessed since the introduction of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 and how many of those assessed needs have been met.
Closing the Debate for his Party, North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood, spoke of a number of issues facing carers and said more needs to be done to support unpaid carers and enable young carers to combine caring with access to education and training.
He referred to the fact that investing in carers could save the health system £7.88 for each £1 spent and spoke of the need for co-production in the design and delivery of care, referring to cases in North Wales where local authorities are “getting it wrong”.
He said:
“the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 Part 2 Code of Practice says that ‘'Fundamental to the whole approach and system is that practitioners co-produce with children, young people, carers and families, and with adults, carers, families…so that people are equal partners in the design and delivery of their care. This will include determining what matters to them and they want to achieve. Local authorities must not make any judgments based on preconceptions of a person’s circumstance.’
“Judicial review proceedings last month relating to the failure to assess and then meet the needs of a young autistic adult and to take full account of her parent carer's willingness and ability to meet need was settled prior to full hearing only because Flintshire Council agreed to provide a formal apology and make a damages award. This case highlights the importance of comprehensive assessments of people in need of care and support and their carers, in accordance with the legislation. And although this case was settled before a full hearing, it nonetheless provides a valuable insight into how this legislation is intended to be applied, but how, still, local authorities are getting it often very wrong.
“Only yesterday, a Flintshire parent carer e-mailed me to say: 'As an autistic adult myself, I struggle to identify where lapses in duty are occurring’. She referred to her own three children, two of whom are already diagnosed on the (autism) spectrum, and concluded: 'As school seems determined that the issues that the boys struggle with are not related to their autism, I'm utterly lost in terms of how to secure the support that they need'.
“Another Flintshire parent carer e-mailed me during this debate, a parent of an autistic child with multiple unmet needs, and she said: ‘still haven't had a carer's assessment of my needs and my daughter's needs, despite my first requesting it in January 2014 and raising it repeatedly'.
“We know that the Integrated Autism Service interim evaluation said that the top-down approach, rather than co-production, has stifled the way forward. I've got many other examples in many other counties. I could have gone on to Wrexham and Conwy, and a range of different conditions where things are not working as the legislation intends, because too many people in power don't want to share that power and are cherry-picking from the guidance, the codes and the legislation.
“Unless the Welsh Government is prepared to actually rise to the box, stand and confront them, and make them acknowledge what this involves, with appropriate training and support when necessary, then stories like this, sadly, are going to continue.”
ENDS