DFID’s People Policies provide discretion and opportunity to support employees who have caring responsibilities. Our flexible working policy provides employees with caring responsibility the ability to combine and balance personal and work responsibilities, and our leave policy includes discretion to approve longer term leave to help employees where there is a need to respond to a life changing event that requires them to take on more or new caring responsibilities. DFID’s counselling service in the form of an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) is available to all employees who need personal support for a range of issues, including work stress, coping with change, depression, marriage/relationship issues, legal concerns, parenting issues, financial problems and more. This service is available 24 hours per day, 365 days a year. DFID employees also have access to a variety of valuable networks. These include a Listening, Parents of Disabled Children, Carers for Vulnerable Adults and Parent Support Networks.

The Government recognises the invaluable contribution made by unpaid carers and the importance of supporting them in their carer roles. This includes provision of and access to respite and replacement care.

The Department has provided £400 million to the National Health Service over four years from 2011 for carers to have breaks from their caring responsibilities. The carers breaks funding of £130 million is now included in the Better Care Fund in 2016/17. The Department has also provided £186.6 million of funding in 2016/17 to local authorities for improved carers’ rights, as established in the Care Act 2014.

The Care Act 2014 duty for local authorities to undertake carers’ assessments also provides an opportunity for the local authority and the carer to look at the support they need and the outcomes that they wish to achieve, including providing them with a break or taking up work, educational and leisure opportunities if they wish.

The Department is committed to continuing to improve support for carers and is currently leading the development of a new cross-Government national carers’ strategy, due to be published by the end of 2016. We are currently consulting widely with a range of stakeholders and carers themselves to inform the development of the strategy.

The Independent Living Fund (ILF) closed on 30 June 2015, with funding and responsibility transferring to local authorities in England and the Devolved Administrations in Scotland and Wales. The Department has not made an assessment of the financial impact on those caring for family members, and at this stage does not plan to do so.

However, the Department has issued statutory guidance to local authorities to support this transfer of responsibility and to prevent any former ILF user having their care interrupted during the transfer. I have recently reminded local authorities of the need to comply with this guidance. In addition, the Care Act 2014 introduced important new rights for carers, and placed a duty on local authorities to assess adults who appear to have care and support needs and to meet those needs which meet the national eligibility criteria.

The Government has committed to publishing a new cross-Government National Carers Strategy before the end of 2016. A wide-ranging call for evidence is now underway to underpin the development of the Strategy, which will gather evidence from stakeholders, and carers themselves, on their experience of caring including issues of personal finance and the support they receive from local authorities.

The Government recognises the invaluable contribution made by unpaid carers including those who care for people with mental health conditions and the importance of supporting them in their caring roles.

That is why we continue to support implementation of the improved rights for carers enshrined in the Care Act 2014. The Department has provided £104 million of funding to local authorities for these rights in 2015/16, which include an extended right to assessment and, for the first time, a duty on local authorities to meet carers’ eligible needs for support.

We have also made an additional £400 million available to the National Health Service between 2011 and 2015 to provide carers with breaks from their caring responsibilities to sustain them in their caring role. The equivalent annual allocation of £130 million for carers breaks is now included in the Better Care Fund.

In May 2014, NHS England published its action plan NHS England - Commitment to carers, it includes a series of commitments around eight priorities, which include raising the profile of carers, including young carers.

The Department is leading on the development of a new cross-Government National Carers Strategy that will look at what more can be done to support existing and new carers including those who care for people with mental health conditions. To support the development of the strategy we are currently conducting a national call for evidence. We want to engage with a wide range of individuals and organisations with experience of caring, to ensure our evidence reflects the diversity of experience of carers, and those for whom they care. The call for evidence was launched in March and will run until mid-summer 2016.

The Government recognises the valuable contribution made by carers, many of whom spend a significant proportion of their life providing support to family members, friends and neighbours and they must receive support.

This is why the Department is leading on a new cross-Government National Carers Strategy to look at what more we can do to support existing and future carers.

On 18 March the Department launched the National Carers Strategy call for evidence for carers and those who support them. This is focussed on improving knowledge of local practice and hearing from carers about the kind of support that helps them. The consultation will end on 30 June 2016. We intend to publish the new strategy towards the end of 2016 but want to ensure that it is based on an academically robust examination of evidence and draws on a wide range of views and ideas.

As the strategy develops, we will consider evidence around the economic impact of caring and what role it plays within the health and care sectors and wider society. We will also look at both international and national best practice to see what support works best for carers so that they can find a healthy balance between providing high quality care and support and maintaining their own life and wellbeing.

We do not hold information on the average number of hours of weekly respite for carers. We are working with councils to improve data in this area for future iterations of the Short and Long Term Care data collection, including on respite care (also known as replacement care).

The Government recognises the invaluable contribution made by unpaid carers and the importance of supporting them in their caring roles. That is why we continue to support implementation of the improved rights for carers enshrined in the Care Act 2014. This includes a right to an assessment on the appearance of needs for support that will look at a carer’s wellbeing and what support they may need in their caring role, including replacement care where appropriate. The Department has provided £104 million of funding to local authorities for these rights in 2015-16.

We have also made an additional £400 million available to the National Health Service between 2011 and 2015 to provide carers with breaks from their caring responsibilities to sustain them in their caring role. The equivalent annual allocation of £130 million for carers breaks is now included in the Better Care Fund.

The Department is also leading the development of a new cross-Government National Carers Strategy that will look at what more we can do to support existing carers and future carers.

Every local area is required to set out in their Better Care Fund the plan for the level of resource that will be dedicated to carer-specific support, including how it has met its minimum contributions for funding towards carers’ breaks. Delivery against these plans is a matter for local determination.

The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, the report of the independent Mental Health Taskforce, was published by NHS England on 15 February 2016. The report includes details of an analysis commissioned by NHS England which found that the national cost of dedicated mental health support and services totals £34 billion. It also noted that if all hours of care provided by unpaid carers to people with mental health issues were instead provided by paid staff, the cost would be approximately £14 billion (this is included in the £34 billion total).

The Taskforce report is available at:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/mentalhealth/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2015/09/fyfv-mental-hlth-taskforce.pdf

Separately, a 2013 report by the Office of National Statistics valued informal care provided in the United Kingdom at £61.7 billion per year (as an output of household production), although it is not possible to identify within this unpaid care specifically provided to people with mental health issues.

The Government recognises the invaluable contribution made by unpaid carers and the importance of supporting them in their caring roles. We have also made an additional £400 million available to the National Health Service between 2011 and 2015 to provide carers with breaks from their caring responsibilities to sustain them in their caring role. The equivalent annual allocation of £130 million for carers breaks is now included in the Better Care Fund.

In May 2014, NHS England published its action plan NHS England – Commitment to carers, it includes a series of commitments around eight priorities. NHS England launched new commissioning guidelines in December 2014 entitled Commissioning for Carers: Principles and resources to support effective commissioning for adult and young carers.

NHS support represents only one form of Government support for carers. We continue to support the improved rights for carers enshrined in the Care Act 2014. This includes a right to an assessment on the appearance of needs for support that will look at a carer’s wellbeing in their own right and what support they may need in their caring role. The Department has provided £104 million of funding to local authorities for these rights in 2015/16.

The Department is also leading the development of a new cross-Government National Carers Strategy that will look at what more we can do to support existing carers and those of the future.

The Government recognises the invaluable contribution made by unpaid carers and the importance of supporting them in their caring roles. We are also aware that caring for people with cancer and other illnesses or disabilities can have significant financial implications both for those involved and wider society, for example, the Government, Carers UK and business representatives worked together to produce the Supporting Working Carers report of 2013, which estimated the costs to the exchequer of carers being unable to continue working at £1.3 billion a year.

That is why we continue to support implementation of the improved rights for carers that were enshrined in The Care Act 2014. On the appearance of needs for support, carers have a right to an assessment that will look at a carer’s wellbeing and what support they may need in their caring role. The Department has provided £104 million of funding to local authorities for these rights in 2015/16.

We also made an additional £400 million available to the National Health Service between 2011 and 2015 to provide carers with breaks from their caring responsibilities to sustain them in their caring role. The Better Care Fund includes £130 million of funding for carers’ breaks in 2015/16.

In 2015 the Government extended to carers a right to request flexible working arrangements, and this helps those carers who wish to balance work and care. We are also funding a £1.6 million pilot project to explore how technology can be combined with professional support from the local authority and the assistance of informal networks to ease the pressure of caring.

The Department is also leading the development of a new cross-Government National Carers Strategy that will look at what more we can do to support existing carers and future carers.

We are also aware that the right support for the person they care for is crucial to improving outcomes for carers. The Independent Cancer Taskforce published its report, Achieving World-Class Cancer Outcomes, in July 2015. It recommended improvements across the cancer pathway, including on patient experience, support, and quality of life. NHS England is currently working with partners across the health system to determine how best to take forward these recommendations.

As part of our approach to support people living with and beyond cancer, we announced in September 2015 that, by 2020, the 280,000 people diagnosed with cancer every year will benefit from a tailored recovery package. These recovery packages, developed in partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support, will be individually designed to help each person live well beyond cancer, including elements such as physical activity programmes, psychological support and practical advice about returning to work.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 30 October 2015 to Question 13008.

We recognise the significant amount of work that the College of Social Work undertook and its achievements in helping raising professional standards for social work. Practice guidance for social work with people with dementia and their carers was developed by the College and published in 2015, helping raise the quality of social work practice in this crucial area. The Chief Social Workers and officials supported the College to ensure that this and other resources continue to be available through the sector and play a role in the future development and growth of social work.

On 14 January, the Secretary of State for Education announced the creation of a new regulatory body for social work, responsible for driving up practice standards and raising the status of the social work profession. This body will support the development of further specialisms in social work practice, including dementia, helping deliver our ambition to continue to raise the quality and status of a profession which plays such a vital role in improving the lives of our most vulnerable people.

The Government does not collect this information.

Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities have statutory responsibilities to temporarily meet the needs of individuals and their carers should their provider fail.

The Act also gave the Care Quality Commission (CQC) a new function to oversee the finances of care providers which are either large or whose provision is geographically concentrated as their financial failure would make it difficult for local authorities to discharge their statutory responsibilities.

The oversight function will provide early warning to relevant local authorities in the event that one of these providers is likely to fail and their services cease. This will allow local authorities time to implement contingency plans.

The CQC have not made any such notifications to local authorities.

To support implementation of the Care Act, a joint Programme Management Office between the Department, the Local Government Association (LGA) and the Association of Directors of Adults Social Services (ADASS) has been established. This unprecedented partnership is driving collaborative working with the care sector, influencing the local implementation of these changes to support a consistent and coherent approach across the country. Earlier this year this approach was recognised by the National Audit Office as best practice and recommended it should be adopted by other similar work programmes.

As part of this programme of work the Department has provided £2.7 million to nine regional local government networks to enable them to commission tools, products and non-statutory guidance to help local authorities in implementing the Care Act. The care sector has been involved in developing these materials and making sure they meet required standards. The materials focus on areas of key risk and challenge identified by local authorities and support the development of best practice. The Department also provided £4 million in 2015-16 for the ADASS to give local authorities targeted support and to help share best practice. Information on good practice, research and innovation aimed at improving the social care infrastructure is available at the following website.

https://www.adass.org.uk/support-and-resources/

In addition the LGA has included information on its website that details available learning and development resources, best practice guidance and practical tools to support the care sector. It also details the regional support available in each of the nine local government regions to help councils to implement the Care Act. The website is available at:

http://www.local.gov.uk/care-support-reform;jsessionid=B36A65C6DFFB6012739EB96FDBE5918B.tomcat2

The support work described above is part of a wider package of Sector-Led Improvement that the Department has funded the LGA and ADASS to deliver, under the umbrella of the Towards Excellence in Adult Social Care (TEASC) programme. The culture of Sector-Led Improvement, and the TEASC programme, are based on the principles that local authorities are responsible for their own performance, and are collectively responsible for the performance of the sector as a whole. This includes an ongoing commitment to share experience, advice and best practice at a regional and national level.

Funding decisions for 2016/17 onwards, including on adult social care, are subject to the forthcoming Spending Review.

Officials in the Department and across government are working hard to understand pressures on the care system and will consider adult social care expenditure and the future demand as part of this process. This includes ongoing Care Act pressures.

We will continue to review and monitor implementation of the Care Act which includes a series of stocktakes of local authority readiness and the latest, from June 2015, demonstrates an overall positive picture on implementation. It details:

- Councils’ confidence in their ability to deliver the Care Act Reforms in 2015/16 remains high, with 99% very or fairly confident.

- 89% of councils say that they are ‘on track’ with their implementation. The remaining 11% report themselves as only slightly behind.

There are two further local authority stocktakes planned for the remainder of the financial year which will monitor the progress on implementing change. It is our intention to repeat the surveys next year to continue monitoring progress, subject to agreement with local government.

The Department will also commission a piece of research to evaluate and inform implementation of the Care Act 2014. The research will focus on knowing more about how the Act is being implemented locally and to see how effectively the Act is achieving its underlying aims.

The Government recognises that social care is vital to enabling people to live healthy and independent lives.

Funding decisions for 2016/17 onwards, including on adult social care, are subject to the forthcoming Spending Review.

Officials in the Department and across government are working hard to understand pressures on the care system and will consider adult social care expenditure and future demand as part of this process.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 30 October 2015 to Question 13008.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 30 October 2015 to Question 13008.

We take voluntary in this context to mean informal unpaid carers – those volunteering to care in a formal capacity are not included in these statistics which are set out below.

Data on provision of unpaid care from the 2011 Census was published by Office of National Statistics (ONS) on 11 December 2012. This showed that there were 6.5 million carers in the United Kingdom.

On 15 February 2013, the ONS published an article with the results of further analysis of the data, which shows that the overall number of unpaid carers in England and Wales has grown by 600,000 since the 2001 Census (approximately 5.8 million people, representing just over 10% of the population).

Decisions on hospital car parking, including charging, are taken locally by National Health Service foundation trusts and NHS trusts.

On 23 August, 2014, the Department published the NHS patient, visitor and staff car parking principles, which set out a nationally consistent approach for hospitals to take to car parking and concessionary charges. This was updated in October 2015 to make explicit reference to carers as a group who should receive concessions. The principles are available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-patient-visitor-and-staff-car-parking-principles

To help NHS organisations deliver the above principles the Department published NHS Car Parking Management: Environment and Sustainability (HTM 07-03) on 25 March 2015. This guidance is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-car-parking-management-htm-07-03

Both documents make it clear that NHS organisations should work with patients, staff, visitors, local authorities and public transport providers when planning their parking provision.