The Scottish government’s most recent Health and Care Experience survey of local healthcare services and at-home care, reveals a lack of support for unpaid carers in Scotland.

Carers have responded more negatively to aspects of their caregiving experience compared with last year, including in their life-caring balance and their level of support to continue caring.

Almost one third of carers responding to the annual survey, which asks for people’s experiences of care and associated support services, said they did not feel supported to continue caring.

A recent report presents the findings, showing more people have taken on caregiving responsibilities since the beginning of the pandemic, with 18% of the 130,352 respondents reporting they provide regular support to friends and family, compared to 15% the year before.

Two major issues raised were the co-ordination of health and care services and the awareness of support options available to them, with just 29% of carers responding positively to local services coordination.

Councils now fund less than a quarter of the total care provided, down from last year, with families and friends filling the gap.

Since the previous survey, there has been a particular increase in unpaid care, which now makes up 46% of total care provided to support people’s everyday living compared to 36% in 2019/20. There was a corresponding decrease in support for people from funding by public sector organisations, including the NHS and local councils.

Sara Redmond, Chief Officer, Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE) said:

“Unpaid carers consistently told the ALLIANCE that their caring role has a negative impact on their physical and mental health, and they don’t know where to turn for support.

“More action is needed to recognise and equally value unpaid care and put in place practical support that unpaid carers need, including a right to short breaks and adequate financial support.”

The least positive response in terms of arranging to see healthcare professionals was for mental health support. In particular, 34% of people with caring responsibilities said that caring had a negative impact on their health and wellbeing.

Kevin Stewart, the Scottish government's Social Care Minister, told healthandcare.scot the government recognises the “enormous role played by unpaid carers” and continues to invest in support, highlighting the additional £20.4m to local support in 2022-23 for the Carers Act. He added:

“Since 2018, we have provided the Carer’s Allowance Supplement, which increases Carer’s Allowance by 13%, and we made two additional payments of this in 2020 and 2021 through our Coronavirus Carer's Allowance Supplement. We also introduced the Young Carer Grant, the first benefit of its kind in the UK.”

For people receiving care, almost 1 in 5 people responded negatively to the statement that ‘I was aware of the help, care and support options available to me’. Additionally, people reported poor inclusion, with 55% saying they did not have ‘a say in how my help, care or support was provided’.

Of the people reporting to have received help from services outside of family or friends, almost two thirds rated this as excellent or good, down by around 20% since 2013/14.

In their care generally over the last year, 70% of people indicated they were ‘treated with compassion and understanding’, down by 6% from the previous survey. Almost one in five people rated the overall help, care, and support they had received negatively.

Jackie Ballie, MSP and Health Spokesperson for Scottish Labour, said:

“The survey is full of praise for hardworking staff, who are clearly working tirelessly to try and fix problems they did not create – but there is only so much they can do.”

“Social care has been left to collapse, leaving the promise of person-centred care in tatters while carers pick up the slack.”

Annie Gunner Logan, former Chief Executive of Scotland’s Coalition of Care and Support Providers, told healthandcare.scot that the Scottish government must keep people who are cared for and their families central to National Care Service reforms. Ms Redmond added:

“We welcome the proposals from Social Security Scotland around Scottish Carers Assistance, as an important next step in establishing Scotland’s devolved social security system, but the results of this survey show that more action is needed.

“For the third sector, we need to ensure there is sustained, long-term investment to organisations delivering much needed support to those providing unpaid care and their loved ones.”

Scotland’s Care Inspectorate has launched a national inquiry into adult unpaid carers’ experiences of social care support services, and their perspective on the organisations supporting them. This will close on 3^rd June 2022.

The Scottish government received responses from 24% of the surveys issued, with most respondents aged 55 and over and from less deprived areas. Recently, healthandcare.scot reported that persistent healthcare inequalities exist in early childhood development and have even been found to impact during pregnancy.

Mr Stewart, Scotland's Social Care Minister, said that government is continuing to work with carers and stakeholders to replace Carer's Allowance with Scottish Carer's Assistance to better help people in Scotland, including additional support for people with multiple caring roles:

“Also, £4 million was announced in January to help organisations working with unpaid carers to put expanded services in place this winter, which many local carer centres used to establish hardship funds for carers who were struggling financially.

“We have allocated an extra £5 million for short breaks for 2022-23, in addition to the £3 million voluntary sector Short Breaks Fund, enabling more families and young carers to take a break from caring.”

Read more: National inquiry into unpaid care; Unpaid carers being “pushed to the brink”; Column: Carers still not being cared for

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