Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:54 pm on 23 October 2019.
Can I just congratulate Carers Wales, and indeed the Government, on the approach to having post-legislative scrutiny not done by us but done by a key charity? The findings really are quite sobering, saying that parts of the Act are not yet working as we would like. The Minister may have seen that only 45 per cent of those who responded said they'd seen or been given information to help them care, that's a real failing, and that was a drop of 8 per cent on last year. Additionally, 57 per cent of carers responding to the survey said they did not get any support, and indeed only 4 per cent said their own support had come from a package as a result of a carers assessment.
We know unpaid carers are at the heart of our care system, and it's a vital group to be supported. We have good legislation, but we've got to ensure that the support is coming forward. I'm particularly concerned to see even basic things like information giving are still not at a level that we can expect. So, I do hope the Government will be responding thoroughly to the 'Track the Act' report, and that we will get that response and the chance to debate it again here in the Chamber.