Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the impact on earning capacity and wellbeing of being an unpaid carer.

The Department has not made a recent assessment. However, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s impact assessment, which accompanied the carer’s leave consultation, considered the impact of caring on the employment and wellbeing of unpaid carers including earnings and is available at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/871865/carers-leave-consultation-impact-assessment.pdf

The Government response to the consultation on carer’s leave, published last September, committed to introduce a new entitlement to one week of leave for unpaid carers. Legislation to introduce carer’s leave as a day one statutory employment right will be brought forward when Parliamentary time allows. The impact assessment will also be updated and re-issued when the legislation is introduced.

In addition, we are working with NHS England and the Carers Partnership, to produce a social prescribing summary document to be disseminated to local carers’ organisations. This will upskill staff in carers organisations on social prescribing as an intervention for loneliness, increase unpaid carer health and wellbeing and the consistency of the social prescribing offer to carers in England.