Far north MP wants to ensure unpaid carers' voices are heard
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Jamie Stone has claimed there is "no joined-up delivery of social care services in Caithness".
He is seeking a meeting with Highland Council, NHS Scotland and others to ensure that unpaid carers' voices are heard.
It follows a listening event hosted by Mr Stone in Thurso at which he heard from 18 Caithness-based carers who look after either adults or young people.
"As a carer myself, I have long dealt with the shortfalls in social care first-hand," the Liberal Democrat MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross said afterwards. "However, it was incredibly insightful to hear from others with both similar and different experiences to me in this regard.
"It is clear that there is no joined-up delivery of social care services in Caithness and there is still no recognition of unpaid carers by the NHS. Carers of adults have practically given up trying to claim the agreed care packages provided by the local authority that they are entitled to receive.
"Severe staffing shortages mean that the registered carers who are employed by local care services often end up arriving to the job late, or sometimes not at all, often through no fault of their own. One constituent was left without a shower for 10 days due to staffing failures.
"Registered care workers are doing their best, but there is only so much they can do with the services that are being mismanaged and under-resourced. The result is that national care standards are not being met.
"It's not like residential care is an option – there are no beds available. As my constituents told me about this, there was a heavy sadness in the room as they recalled stories of parents and grandparents seeing out their final days in hospital beds or alone in their homes.
"When it comes to carers for children under 18, it is becoming increasingly difficult for carers to hold down jobs while also looking after children with additional needs due to schools being unable to provide a full day of schooling.
"With so few registered carers, it is almost impossible to secure support at home to help see through the hours before the working day finishes."
Mr Stone pointed out: "Since Thor House [in Thurso] is being repurposed as a care home, respite care is now unavailable. It is good to hear that the third sector is making strong efforts to fill the gaps – parents are indeed relieved – but this responsibility lies with the Scottish Government and shouldn't have to come down to the goodwill of independent charities.
"Care, carer support, and provision of services are devolved to the Scottish Parliament and local authorities, so I am in an extremely restricted position. However, I have called for a meeting with Highland Council, NHS Scotland, the minister for social care [Maree Todd] and the Care Inspectorate to ensure that these carers' voices are heard at the highest level.
"We need to make the strongest possible case for investment and improvement in service delivery.
"The promises made by the Scottish Government on free personal care, equal treatment, inclusive education and disability support are not being kept. We desperately need to ensure that more political attention, especially from those who can actually legislate on this matter, is given to the needs of unpaid carers and the people they care for."
The chairman of Highland Council’s health, social care and wellbeing committee, Councillor David Fraser, said: “We are looking at overnight breaks for children across all of the Highlands and how we can meet this need for families.”
A spokesperson for NHS Highland said: "NHS Highland works with a range of third sector partners to support unpaid carers in our area to feel willing and able to continue in their caring role. Connecting Carers – our carers centre in Highland – helps us meet our statutory duties by providing tailored, high-quality information and advice to unpaid carers. They also work with carers to understand, and where possible help them meet, their needs via the Adult Carer Support Plan process.
"We have a small set of other carers services who try to provide support in a variety of different ways – from befriending and peer support to getting involved in creative activities – and we have tried to make opportunities for carers to get a break from what we know can be an exacting role.
"We also have a scheme which allows unpaid carers – usually via social work or our carers centre – to access a short break through an SDS Option 1 (direct payment), with well over 500 unpaid carers able to access this funding last year.
"Our Joint Strategic Plan sets out how we will work with partners to improve the health and wellbeing of adults in Highland while also being mindful of the demand and complexity of needs during a time when we have significant financial challenges.
"We need to transform the way we work with our population and communities to change our approach to providing services to help us meet needs like this across Highland."
