Thank you. As a Government, we recognise the vital role that carers undertake on a daily basis, and these include husbands, wives, parents, children, relatives, friends and neighbours, who provide unpaid but invaluable care for some of the most vulnerable people in our communities. In Wales, there are around 385,000 carers, accounting for more than 10 per cent of our population, and it’s estimated that that number will double over the next 15 years. Given the outstanding and selfless work that carers do, we have to ensure that they’re not taken for granted and are provided with the appropriate help and support that they need.

The Welsh Government has long sought to improve the lives of carers. In 2000, we published our carers strategy for Wales, which provided a framework for delivering services and support for carers. This was followed 10 years later with the Carers Strategies (Wales) Measure 2010 and, more recently, the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 has enabled us to build on the progress and strengthen our commitment to carers.

As Jayne recognised in her opening speech, the Act, which came into force in April of last year, significantly strengthens the rights of carers. Now, for the first time, carers have an equal right to assessment and support as the people they care for. They no longer need to demonstrate that they provide significant care in order to have their needs assessed. Whilst previously the onus was on the carer to request an assessment, the Act now places a statutory duty on local authorities to proactively inform carers of their right to be assessed. Once an assessment has been undertaken, and if it’s confirmed that the carer is eligible, then the local authority is required to put in place a statutory care plan to meet the needs that have been identified.

We know that, sometimes, it can be difficult for carers to find the right information and advice, and this is why the Act requires local authorities to ensure that carers can readily access information, advice and assistance about the type of support and services available in their communities. As well as ensuring that services and support are available, we also need to ensure that there’s effective working across health and local authorities, as well as with the third sector and other partners. Seven statutory regional partnership boards have therefore been established. The boards must work together to ensure the provision of integrated services, care and support. A number of priority areas have been set out in statutory guidance, one of which relates to carers. There’s also a requirement to have a carer representative on the board to ensure that the carer’s perspective is always at the heart of the agenda. I hope that this level of partnership working and innovative approach will meet some of those challenges that Hannah Blythyn set out in her speech.

The Act will be evaluated to determine progress and whether or not it’s delivering what we set out to achieve. This will be undertaken in three phases. Policies under the Act will be monitored during the initial year of implementation to understand whether they’re being implemented as intended and whether they have supported improvements. There’ll be ongoing evaluation through the national outcomes framework and the local authority performance measurement framework. Reporting will be undertaken annually and will provide information on whether well-being is improving nationally. An independent, external piece of research will be commissioned. We will work with stakeholders to ensure that the sector continues to be involved and provides guidance for this important work.

Whilst the Act provides significant gains for carers, it is important that we recognise the progress already made by local authorities, health boards and the third sector under the carers Measure. This has included work to mainstream carers’ issues, improve early identification of carers and empower carers in decision making. To support transition from the requirements in the carers Measure to the enhanced duties in the Act, £1 million-worth of funding was allocated for 2016-17 and there will also be a further £1 million for 2017-18. This spending is to provide support for health, local authorities and the third sector to work in partnership and support carers. The funding has been provided to strengthen the partnership approach at a regional level and create opportunities to enable the third sector to fully participate in delivery. It has also been provided to enable existing good practice to be embedded and mainstreamed so that it becomes common practice.

We’re currently refreshing our carers strategy and this will reflect the enhancement of carers’ rights in the Act and will set out the key priority areas and actions that will be taken forward to support carers. This will be developed in partnership with carers’ networks and organisations and with carers themselves to ensure there is joint ownership and action taken to address the issues that really matter to carers. I met with the Wales Carers Alliance in December so that I could hear directly from them the issues that they think we need to be considering when developing the plan.

The strategic action plan will set out what we’ve done, what we’ve been told by carers and what actions we will take in response to that. Carers have told us that they want to be recognised for the work that they do. They want easy access to the right information and assistance and they want support for their lives outside of the caring role, including access to respite care and short breaks. We know the importance of people being able to remain in their jobs when they’re caring for others. We also know how difficult it can be for carers when their caring role comes to an end, and Jayne referred earlier to the loneliness and isolation that carers can experience. Along with Jayne I attended the launch of Ffrind i Mi—Friend of Mine—in Newport, and recognise the importance of befriending schemes and the valuable role of volunteers. As I said in the recent debate on loneliness and isolation, as a Government we’re committed to doing all we can to address this issue, and this will include looking at what we can do to support carers. Therefore, in order to respond to what carers say is important to them, initial discussions with stakeholders have identified three key themes, which include identification and recognition of carers; information, advice and assistance; and life outside the caring role. Further discussions will be held over the coming months to identify the priority actions for delivery under each of these themes. This will be followed by formal public consultation over the summer. We have, however, already committed to exploring the provision of ID cards for young carers and we are also examining a national approach to respite care.

We’re also working as part of the British-Irish Council on a number of priority areas in relation to carers, and these include specific work streams on young carers—and certainly, I’ll be taking on board the comments that Joyce Watson has raised—and the carers of older people, including older carers. Julie’s very sad story illustrates the specific and very special pressures that are on older carers. Also, the identification of carers, and telecare and telehealth services and assistive technologies. This work will be used to inform the development of our strategic action plan for carers.

Finally, on behalf of the Welsh Government, I’d like to thank carers across Wales for their dedication and commitment to improving the lives of the people they care for. I’d also encourage them to exercise their rights and take up the support to which they’re entitled. We want carers to be actively involved in the work we’re undertaking to refresh the carers strategy so that we and other partners can ensure that we take action to address the issues that are really important to them. Thank you.