Chamber and committees

Scottish Government Ministers and officials regularly attend meetings and sessions with unpaid carers to ensure they are properly involved in COVID-19 response and recovery planning.

The former Minister for Public Health, Sport and Wellbeing, Joe FitzPatrick MSP, attended a range of virtual meeting with carers in 2020 at which the impact of the pandemic was discussed. These include:

• a Carers Week session run by Dundee Carers Centre in June;
• a members meeting of the Coalition of Carers in Scotland (COCIS) in June;
• a conversation with families who benefited from Family Fund’s Take a Break Fund in September; and
• the Carers Parliament event in November (alongside the Minister for Mental Health).

Other Ministers have also engaged directly with carers during the pandemic.

As the new Minister for Public Health and Sport, I have a number of meetings in my diary over the coming months to speak directly with carers of all ages about their experiences and concerns during this challenging time.

In additional to direct Ministerial engagement, Scottish Government officials across various portfolios have met and consulted with unpaid carers regularly on issues relating to the pandemic. Examples include:

• responding to issues raised by the Carers Cross Party Group, and other Cross Party Groups with carer interests;
• engagement events for the ‘Towards Transformation plan’ which looks to address emerging COVID-19 issues for autistic people and/or people with learning disabilities;
• engagement with carers of those with dementia as part of the Clear Your Head campaign;
• through the national Dementia in Care Homes Group which has met regularly since the start of COVID -19;
• engagement with individual carers leading to the publication of the Scottish Government’s Dementia COVID-19 Recovery Plan;
• work with young carers to support the development of a young carer section of the National Wellbeing Hub.

Forthcoming Social Security work includes research with young carers as part of the evaluation of Young Carer Grant (YCG) to explore how COVID-19 has impacted on how young carers have used, or intend to use, the grant.

We will also launch a survey, which will be followed by an interview series, on how the pandemic has impacted people’s communication preferences and needs of Social Security Scotland. This will be sent to all Experience Panels members and all members of the Social Security Client Panels who have applied to Social Security Scotland, including applicants for YCG.

Around half of the Social Security Experience Panel is made up of carers. Of people who responded to the questions, 52% of panel members said that they have caring responsibilities.

As always, members of the public, including unpaid carers, continue to be able to write to the Scottish Government, providing vital lived experience which informs recovery policy making.