Carers are some of the unsung heroes in our society, providing vital support to a family member for many hours a week and in many instances over a sustained period of time. In fact the caring duties provided to a loved one are often open-ended with no restriction on caring hours and no regular days off. This restricts the life of the carer away from their caring responsibilities.
For example, recent research on the lives of young carers by The Princess Royal Trust for Carers in Scotland has revealed that:
"only 11% of young carers see friends every day, as opposed to 37% of young people who participated in Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey (SALSUS). 49% of young carers said they visited friends’ houses less than weekly or never."
"Of the young carers responding, 60% cared for more than 20 hours a week, whilst 20% cared more than 50 hours a week. The majority cared for their mother."
In such circumstances, the provision of respite care weeks is a real lifeline for the carer allowing them a rare opportunity to depart from their daily routine and ties as a carer and to recharge their batteries. It is hoped that this would help sustain them so that they can continue their roles and responsibilities as a carer.
It was with this in mind that I quizzed the Director of Social Work at the Social Work Committee last night. In the statistics in the progress report on the Social Work Strategic Plan, there were figures for the number of weeks of respite care provided but no detail about the number and characteristics of the carers who had benefitted from these. It was therefore impossible to know how many carers had benefited from this vital service. As this information would currently take weeks of staff time to provide, I suggested that this should be incorporated in the new plan and the statistics gathered so that Councillors and the public can be in a better informed position to make a judgement about Social Work services in our city such as the provision of respite care weeks.