Carers: Equal Opportunities
14th June 2011
Dr Francis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent discussions he has had with carers' organisations on steps to ensure that carers have equal opportunities in access to (a) further and higher education, (b) leisure and (c) training; and if he will make a statement.
Paul Burstow: We have had no specific discussions with carers' organisations on these issues. However, in “Recognised, valued and supported: Next steps for the Carers Strategy”, we set out four priority areas for action. These included enabling those with caring responsibilities to fulfil their educational and employment potential and personalised support for carers and those they support, enabling them to have a family and community life.
The Department published “Carers and personalisation: Improving outcomes”, a copy of which has been placed in the Library, alongside the updated carers' strategy. This illustrates how the principles of personalisation have been applied to carers to enable them to live a life outside caring including taking up educational, leisure and training opportunities.
