Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to publish a second carers action plan for carers in the City of Durham.

The Government published the ‘Carers Action Plan 2018 – 2020 supporting carers today’ published in June 2018, which sets out a cross-Government programme of targeted work to support all unpaid carers, including improving the identification of carers, and gives visibility to the work already underway or planned within Government over two years until the end of June this year.

A final report on the action plan will be produced later this year and, alongside this report the Government will consider the best next steps to support carers.

In addition to the Carers Action Plan, most local authorities have their own individual care plans or strategies to support unpaid carers in their areas.

On the point about a scheme to identify unpaid carers, in addition to the Government’s Carers Action Plan, the National Health Service has set out a plan to help improve the identification and support of carers and unpaid carers within the NHS Long Term Plan. Understandably, the implementation of some aspects of this have been impacted by the COVID-19 response.