Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report entitled The Impact of Care Act Easements published by the University of Manchester and the NIHR Older People and Frailty Policy Research Unit in November 2022, what steps her Department is taking to support local authorities in identifying hidden older carers within their communities.

Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are required to undertake a Carer’s Assessment for any unpaid carer who appears to have need for support, and to meet their eligible needs upon request from the carer.

On 24 October 2023, the adult social care’s Innovation and Improvement Unit launched the Accelerating Reform Fund which provides a total of £42.6 million over 2023/24 and 2024/25 to support innovation and scaling in adult social care, and to kick start a change in services to support unpaid carers. The list of priorities for innovation and scaling includes focussing on identifying unpaid carers in local areas, encouraging people to recognise themselves as carers, and promoting access to carer services.

The adult social care reform white paper, People at the Heart of Care, published on 1 December 2021, highlighted the potential to increase the voluntary use of unpaid carer markers in National Health Service electronic health records. In 2022, NHS England wrote to all general practices about the importance of identifying carers and advising how caring status should be recorded on patient records.