Young Carers: Health and Well-being Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateBaroness Finlay of Llandaff
Main Page: Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (Crossbench - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness Finlay of Llandaff's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(4 years, 7 months ago)
Lords ChamberThe noble Lord has asked a specific statistical question which I want to provide an accurate answer to, so I will write to him.
My Lords, do the Government recognise that the shortage of beds which is being experienced across the NHS is having an adverse effect on the ability to provide respite admissions when young carers find that they are literally at breaking point? Funded beds in hospices, nursing homes and other places can be essential to maintaining the cohesiveness of a family unit that is under extreme strain.
Obviously, pressure on the wider NHS and on social care can have a knock-on effect on unpaid carers who provide an enormous and valuable contribution to our health system, and also on those who care for them. I think that many of us in this Chamber will have personal and direct experience of that. That is why we have provided an extra £33.9 billion of funding for the NHS to ease those pressures, why we are working hard to find a sustainable solution to social care reform, and why we want to make sure that we provide carers of all ages with the support they need, first through identification and later by making sure that they have joined-up support right through the system.