Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether support is provided for unpaid carers who suffer from mental ill-health as a result of caring; and if he will make a statement.

The Government is committed to supporting carers to provide care as they would wish, and to do so in a way that supports their own health and wellbeing. In June 2018, the Department published the Carers Action Plan (CAP), which sets out a cross-Government programme of targeted work to support carers over the next two years.

The CAP highlighted the work that NHS England and the Care Quality Commission have been doing to work with frontline primary care staff, commissioners, carers and carer representative organisations to develop a framework of quality markers that can be used by doctors’ surgeries to demonstrate how effective they are in recognising and supporting carers. The framework sets a clear ambition to improve carers’ health and promote positive wellbeing and reduce carer crisis and family breakdown.

NHS mental health services are available for carers with mental health needs.