Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the scope is of the current consultation on the Government National Carers Strategy.

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.