To ask the Minister of Health (i) to detail the (a) financial; and (b) respite support that his Department is providing to all carers; and (ii) what steps he is taking to contact unregistered carers to provide access to the support they need.

(i) (a) Financial support for carers is the responsibility of the Department for Communities. While my Department does not make direct financial payments to carers, the HSC Trusts do have the facility to make a cash grant payment to carers following the completion of an assessment of their need. Such payments can be made to replace a broken domestic appliance or to pay for a short break for the carer.

In recognition of the need to support all carers, I was pleased to launch the Support for Carers Fund last year, with £4.4m allocated to the fund. The aim was to provide grant funding to organisations with charitable status that can deliver outcomes to improve the lives and experiences of carers. The second round of awards, totalling more than £1m, was announced in March 2022. This announcement followed the allocation of almost £600,000 in the first round of funding, announced last September, and I am pleased to advise that a third call for applications for funding is currently open, with a closing date of 20 June 2022.

A wide range of projects have received funding to date, including the provision of practical support, wellbeing events, respite, advocacy support, and mental health support. Projects also cover both adult and young carers. I look forward to seeing how they make a difference in the lives and experiences of individual carers in the coming months and years.

(b) Significant efforts have been made by Trusts to implement the Public Health Agency Pathway to remobilise respite services to manage risk, while increasing service provision on a phased basis, throughout a period of high community prevalence of Covid-19.

Short Breaks provision across statutory health & social care settings has significantly increased. However, overall capacity has reduced as a number of respite beds available in care homes have been withdrawn by independent sector providers.

There remains further adjustments to public health guidance required before services can be fully restore to pre-pandemic levels. Therefore, officials have written to the PHA asking them to commence an urgent formal review of the Pathway and associated health protection guidelines.

Aligned to this process, the Department has requested performance and capacity data across all Trusts, which will be published on the Department’s website in June 2022.

(ii) In 2021, in recognition of the need to reach out to unpaid carers in particular, my Department organised a leaflet drop through the door of every home in Northern Ireland, in an attempt to encourage those in a caring role to seek the help and support they need and may be entitled to.

Trusts continue to proactively reach out to identify informal, unpaid carers to ensure they have the support they require in their caring role, and are able to access appropriate advice and support. This is done by working closely with GPs, pharmacists, and the community and voluntary sector, especially condition specific agencies and other public agencies such as Councils and Colleges of Further Education. A range of information and communication methods are used to encourage people to come forward and identify themselves as carers and also to inform them of services available.

Trusts ensure services actively seek to identify carers, including young carers. This includes ensuring hospital teams understand what carers need in order to provide them with information and support. This is supported by an ongoing programme of staff training to raise awareness of carers and create capacity with staff to identify and support carers. As standard practice, when staff identify carers, they are offered carer assessments or reassessments and if accepted, arrangements are made for the assessments to be carried out. This is also supported by a programme of carer assessment training for staff.

Further to this, carers’ registers are in place regionally across Northern Ireland. The Health and Social Care Trusts maintain the registers, which carers can voluntarily choose to join. These registers are primarily a means of sharing information and advice with carers and for supporting carers through networks and activities.

In terms of future actions, as part of the Reform of Adult Social Care, proposals are now out for consultation regarding how to bring about changes to how we provide social care, including better support for Family Carers. The consultation started on 26 January 2022 with the closing date extended to 1 July 2022.

Following the completion of the consultation, responses and feedback will be analysed and collated for review by the Department and a consultation feedback report published.

The consultation will inform the development of a new strategy for adult social care.