Rt Hon Paul Burstow MP
Minister of State for Care Services
Department of Health

5 August 2010

Dear Paul,

Carers (Identification and Support) Bill

I am writing to urge you to support Ten Minute Rule Motion, Carers (Identification and Support) Bill, at its Second Reading on 12th November this year.

As I am sure you are aware, the Bill requires health bodies and GPs to identify patients who have carers or who are themselves carers and to refer them to sources of help and support. With particular emphasis on recognising the needs of young carers, the Bill also requires schools and local authorities to make provision to identify and support children who have taken on a caring role.

Current procedures are failing to make local services aware of many carers and their needs. In my own constituency in Brighton, there are 21,612 carers, but the vast majority are not identified as such by health and social services. They are, therefore, missing out on support which they may desperately need but are too busy with their caring responsibilities to seek out themselves.

As you know, government already requires Primary Care Trusts to provide breaks for carers. However, recent research undertaken by The Princess Royal Trust for Carers and Crossroads Care found that two-thirds of PCTS could not give figures for how many carers they had been able to support in this way. Some, if not many, carers may be slipping through the cracks due to a simple failure of administration. The Carers (Identification and Support) Bill seeks to remedy this failure.
Further research by the Princess Royal Trust for Carers found that two-thirds of schoolchildren who are carers suffer bullying, and that 40% of young carers say none of their teachers are aware of their caring role. Schools and local authorities need to do better in supporting such vulnerable young carers, and provisions in this Bill seek to help them do so.

Hard -working and dedicated carers - be they children or adults - are risking the deterioration of their own physical and mental health, and thus their ability to provide care, because of a lack of adequate support. As well as the human cost, health and social services may have to pick up the pieces when unsupported carers become patients themselves.

I trust you will share my concerns and lend your support to the Bill. I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely,

Caroline Lucas MP, Brighton Pavilion