Government Announces New Standing Commission on Carers
A wide-ranging consultation is currently under way on a new deal for the people that take on this important role of carer.
This will continue, but the issue is of such importance that the Prime Minister has announced that a Standing Commission on Carers will be established, reporting to the Secretary of State for Health.
Philippa Russell, a leading expert and advocate for carers, will work with Ivan Lewis, as Minister for Carers, to take forward this proposal.
The Standing Commission will:
- Ensure the voice of carers is central to the development of Government policy;
- Look at how carers will be affected by the long term issues of:
- Changes in demography meaning that carers are getting older while there is growing demand
- Changes in the choices people are making about how and where they want their care with more people wanting to be cared for in their own home
- Changes in technology which are supporting people to live independently for longer
- Changes in the caring relationships in families with, for example young and older carers
- Changes in the locations of families with more people working or living in areas that are further away from those who need to be cared for
- Changes in the number of adults and children with chronic conditions and mental health problems;
- Have an overview of the current consultation and oversee the carers' strategy due to be published next year;
- Monitor implementation of the carers' strategy and the new deal for carers.
Membership will be announced in due course. The Commission will need to pay due regard to existing and likely future fiscal and spending limits.
The Prime Minister said;
"My second proposal is that we set up new standing commissions where we can bring together not just people of all parties, but representatives from outside the normal party system to examine continuing issues of concern. Now choosing these issues would be on the basis that they are long term and usually non-ideological concerns that it is in the interests of the whole nation to agree to meet together.
Take for example carers. As our society ages our need for carers rises. Care is an issue that will affect us all in some way in the future. Nobody understands this better than the many organisations in the voluntary and community sector, many of them here today who support carers and the cared for, and who advocate for them. I believe that the thinking that will be of best help for carers and those cared for will draw upon the ideas, the views and the values of the 6 million British carers themselves.
Last year when I went to visit the home of a carer I heard at first hand the struggle and yet the desire to help others in the same position. She wanted to train carers, to advise and perhaps even to help service carers with her own company set up for that purpose. And she told me she doesn't want the government to walk away, she wants the government on her side, and it is when government works in partnership with the voluntary sector, local authorities and carers themselves that we can do most to make lives better. But in future working in partnership must mean not only listening and learning, but involving and engaging the carers themselves in solutions we need.
So building on the consultation we are already undertaking this year with carers, I believe we should now establish a standing commission on carers. Philippa Russell, a leading expert and advocate, will work with Ivan Lewis, the Minister for Carers, to take forward this proposal. And because I favour breaking through the old sterile party divides I also want to ensure that advice can be given by the best people of whatever political persuasion, and reviews that are necessary in the national interest can be done by people, irrespective of party label, who have important contributions to make."