Support for Carers

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:26 pm on 20 October 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:26, 20 October 2020

Llywydd, can I thank Dr Lloyd for those additional questions? It'll be a year next month since his committee published their report 'Caring for our future', and that report goes on being very influential in the thinking of the Welsh Government. I had an opportunity earlier in the year, together with Julie Morgan, the Deputy Minister for Health and Social Services, to meet with a group of informal carers. They were tired then, Llywydd; they were already living with the challenges of caring for other people during the pandemic. And it was deeply moving in that meeting to hear from them, both about the challenges that they face, but also about their astonishing commitment to those people for whom they have caring responsibilities, and the rewards that they reported that they get, even in those most challenging times, from having that relationship and carrying out those responsibilities. It was partially in recognition of everything we were told then that my colleague Julie Morgan was able to announce £50,000 earlier in the summer to Carers Wales, for them to provide additional psychological support for unpaid carers here in Wales. It goes some way to answering the points that Dai Lloyd raised in his supplementary question about the ongoing wear and tear that is felt in the lives of unpaid carers at this most difficult time. And I hope that the £1 million fund, which we've been able to announce today, will go further still to help them with the sheer practical impact that caring for others has on them during such a challenging time.