7. How will the Welsh Government support unpaid carers this winter? OQ57259

Llywydd, in recognition of the increased pressure caused by the pandemic, we have allocated additional funding of £10 million to support unpaid carers of all ages in this financial year, including £5.5 million allocated to local authorities to provide a range of support to unpaid carers over this winter.

Diolch, Prif Weinidog. In a recently published report, Carers UK found that 36 per cent of carers in Wales said that they were struggling to make ends meet; 34 per cent wrote that their mental health was bad or very bad; and 36 per cent reported that they are often, or always, lonely. Very sadly, they also found that carers rated their overall satisfaction with life at an average of just 4 out of 10. Behind every statistic there's a person who is caring for a loved one.

Carers are absolutely invaluable. I know that there are support services in place, but many services have been, and still are being, disrupted by the pandemic. This Thursday marks Carers Rights Day. Following the last 19 months, carers need our support now more than ever. What is the Welsh Government doing to restore disrupted care services, and how is the Welsh Government ensuring that all carers are aware of the support available?

Llywydd, I agree with everything that Jayne Bryant said about the invaluable service that unpaid carers provide in Wales, and the impact of the pandemic, both on them directly and on their ability to access services. Nonetheless, I think that partners right across Wales, and from all party political persuasions, are working very hard to make sure that those services are restored.

The Welsh Government recently provided £3 million to local authorities to help them with their respite care services. So, just to give you some examples—and my colleague Julie Morgan will say more about this, Llywydd, in a statement later this week—. In Gwynedd, in the north, the council there is using its share of that money to improve and to extend the range of respite care services that it provides. In Swansea, they have developed a rapid response respite at home service.

In Monmouth, 1,400 unpaid and young carers have taken advantage of a new scheme set up by the local authority to allow access to small-scale activities for people who spend so much of their time looking after others. I think that you can see there that there is both imagination and determination among our partners to restore those services, and to do it in a way that meets the needs of people who have offered so much.

Of course, Jayne Bryant is right, Llywydd, that knowing your rights as a carer is very important. I'm glad that, once again this year, the Welsh Government will help to fund and take part in the national carers' rights information campaign. It's a partnership with Carers Wales and the Carers Trust here in Wales. We have got some evidence, Llywydd, of some success in those efforts.

The Welsh Government made available £1.25 million in a carers' support fund to help with the particular impact of the pandemic. That fund was available between October of last year and the end of March of this year. Some 6,000 carers were able to draw down funding from that new funding stream, and 2,500 of them had never previously been in receipt of any form of support. That gives me some confidence that the efforts that are being made to make sure that the services that are available are known to the people who need them—that some success is being achieved in that.