, Health and Social Care Committee
Improving access to support for unpaid carers: evidence session with the Minister for Children and Social Care
Sure. Yes. Sorry. So, I have got responsibility for the data collection in social care, not in health. So, I'm happy to have those conversations with the Cabinet Secretary. But I don't know whether you, Denise, have got any information about how the data is…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Improving access to support for unpaid carers: evidence session with the Minister for Children and Social Care
That's okay.
, Health and Social Care Committee
Improving access to support for unpaid carers: evidence session with the Minister for Children and Social Care
So, as I said earlier on, what we've requested is a newer, fuller annual data collection, and a specific element of that is around unpaid carers. There's a whole new discussion about wider data collection in health, but I think let's focus on unpaid carers…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Improving access to support for unpaid carers: evidence session with the Minister for Children and Social Care
—and it was primarily an expedient decision that we took, Mabon, just to extend it by a year. So, there was no indication, no consideration, really, of having a full review of the grant and how much it was going to be; it was just kind of, 'Are we going to…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Improving access to support for unpaid carers: evidence session with the Minister for Children and Social Care
Thank you. Okay, right. So, what we did—. I think it's important to understand the context in which the social services sustainable grant was extended. It was extended just for one year. We are looking to develop a new grant to replace the sustainable social…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Improving access to support for unpaid carers: evidence session with the Minister for Children and Social Care
I did get Mabon's question, but it keeps switching itself off.
, Health and Social Care Committee
Improving access to support for unpaid carers: evidence session with the Minister for Children and Social Care
I'm sorry, Chair, my interpretation keeps switching itself off for some reason, and if I could have a different set that would be—
, Health and Social Care Committee
Improving access to support for unpaid carers: evidence session with the Minister for Children and Social Care
You refer to the last four to five years, Mabon, and you will know only too well, because your party was in the co-operation agreement with us, some of the extremely challenging financial positions that we had in the early term of this Government. We had a…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Improving access to support for unpaid carers: evidence session with the Minister for Children and Social Care
We've just extended that for a further year to cover the election period, knowing that that's going to be a period of uncertainty this year. So, we extended the funding for that. But I think that where we are in a position to at least give indications of…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Improving access to support for unpaid carers: evidence session with the Minister for Children and Social Care
Thank you, Mabon. Sorry, I missed the very first bit, but I got the gist of what you were saying. The carers organisations, in a sense, are no different to a number of third sector organisations that we speak to, who are very keen to see us deliver multi-year…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Improving access to support for unpaid carers: evidence session with the Minister for Children and Social Care
Absolutely, and this is very much a cross-Government approach. I regularly have conversations with my colleagues the Cabinet Secretary for Education, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice and the Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government. The…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Improving access to support for unpaid carers: evidence session with the Minister for Children and Social Care
Well, I think I've set out very clearly, Chair, what my view is on this. This has been a priority for me since I've been Minister, to see this improve and to see the support for unpaid carers being delivered, and I think I've made that commitment, both…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Improving access to support for unpaid carers: evidence session with the Minister for Children and Social Care
So, we're moving to a different type of data collection and I'm quite happy for officials to explain that to you in a bit more detail. But we won't have that data published until April 2027.
, Health and Social Care Committee
Improving access to support for unpaid carers: evidence session with the Minister for Children and Social Care
April 2027.
, Health and Social Care Committee
Improving access to support for unpaid carers: evidence session with the Minister for Children and Social Care
Well, the improvement work and the action plan, as you said, is being led by ADSS Cymru, but it's being guided by a sub-group of my ministerial advisory group on unpaid carers. So, they're not working on this in isolation; this is actually being done directly…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Improving access to support for unpaid carers: evidence session with the Minister for Children and Social Care
Well, inevitably, this is going to be an ongoing piece of work. I mean, I'm not going to resolve this in the next eight weeks, let's be quite frank about that. But what I can do is make sure that I give a very clear steer to any incoming Government about the…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Improving access to support for unpaid carers: evidence session with the Minister for Children and Social Care
Well, I mean, the issue is, basically, the evidence that you've had presented to you, to committee. I mean, that evidence, a lot of it is anecdotal, partly because we don't have robust enough data—and I'm happy to discuss that in a moment—but anecdotal…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Improving access to support for unpaid carers: evidence session with the Minister for Children and Social Care
I don't know what—. What have we had in so far?
, Health and Social Care Committee
Improving access to support for unpaid carers: evidence session with the Minister for Children and Social Care
The monitoring, at the moment, is showing that we get the report and that money is being spent. I am not convinced yet that what that is showing is that we're—. Well, clearly, because the evidence shows us that we're not actually delivering everything that we…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Improving access to support for unpaid carers: evidence session with the Minister for Children and Social Care
Well, we do monitor in the regular discussions that we have with local authorities and through the regional partnership boards. Regional partnership boards have a significant part to play in all of this, and we have regular reports from them on what they're…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Improving access to support for unpaid carers: evidence session with the Minister for Children and Social Care
To be absolutely clear, what I did was formally, in December, write to local authority leaders, but that wasn't the first contact I've ever had with local authorities about this issue, and you will appreciate that my officials are in regular contact with…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Improving access to support for unpaid carers: evidence session with the Minister for Children and Social Care
Sure.
, Health and Social Care Committee
Improving access to support for unpaid carers: evidence session with the Minister for Children and Social Care
I think this is absolutely the same concern that I have, and why ADSS were commissioned to undertake a review specifically in this area. That was before my time as Minister, but the ongoing work sits with me. But we commissioned ADSS to undertake a review of…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Improving access to support for unpaid carers: evidence session with the Minister for Children and Social Care
Thank you for that question, Chair. Can I start by saying, and I want to put this on the record again—I've put this on the record many times—unpaid carers are absolutely the backbone of the social care system in the community? Without unpaid carers, the…
, Health and Social Care Committee
Improving access to support for unpaid carers: evidence session with the Minister for Children and Social Care
Indeed. I'm Dawn Bowden, and I'm the Minister for Children and Social Care.
