Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to implement an identification scheme for unpaid carers in (a) the Barnsley Central constituency and (b) England.

The Carers Action Plan 2018-2020 ‘Supporting carers today’ (published on 5 June 2018) sets out a two-year programme of targeted work to support unpaid carers in England. It puts a focus on practical actions to support carers, including improving identification of carers, and gives visibility to the work already underway or planned within Government.

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 have been impacted by the COVID-19 response. The NHS Long Term Plan focuses on four key areas:

- Implementing Quality Markers in primary care: this is a framework to support general practitioner practices identify carers within their practices and thinking about their individual support needs, from offering health screening to connecting to local support organisations;

- Developing a similar set of quality markers for secondary care, which will incorporate the promotion and embedding of carer passports; and

- Improving identification of carers from vulnerable communities: many carers feel hidden and we will be working with regional, Integrated Care System Carers Leads and Carers organisations to co-design approaches to make NHS service to carers who may have felt excluded or found access difficult.

NHS England has also worked with young carers across the country to develop a set of ‘top tips’ for primary care to improve their experience of and access to services. They will be working with carers, carers support organisations and integrated care system teams to roll these out and identify how we improve the identification and support of young carers across communities.