Health and Sport Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Official Report 513KB pdf

---

Subordinate Legislation

---

Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 (Agreements of a Specified Kind) Regulations 2017 [Draft]

Agenda item 3 is the consideration of one instrument tat is subject to affirmative procedure: the draft Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 (Agreements of a Specified Kind) Regulations 2017. As usual with affirmative instruments, we will have an evidence session with the cabinet secretary, followed by a formal debate on the motion.

I welcome Shona Robison, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport, who does not have her officials with her, and I invite her to make an opening statement.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak about the draft regulations. It has always been our intention that kinship carers should not be excluded from support for carers under the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016. The draft regulations are to clarify that kinship carers who have a formal agreement with the local authority can be seen as a carer under the 2016 act where they meet the other requirements of the definition.

In particular, the draft regulations will ensure that kinship carers are on an equal footing with parents who would only be seen as carers where the care required is over and above that which would normally be expected for a child of that age. Clarifying the definition of “carer” will assist local authorities to develop their local eligibility criteria under the 2016 act from October. The meaning of “carer” in the 2016 act excludes people who are caring under, or by virtue of, a contract. The draft regulations will ensure that an agreement between a local authority and a kinship carer under regulation 12 of the Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009 is not a contract for the purposes of defining a carer under the act. Without the draft regulations, those formal kinship carers may be considered to have a contract to provide the care, which would exclude them from the definition of “carer”. Given that kinship carers who have no formal arrangement in place with the local authority cannot be legally considered to be caring under a contract, there is no similar potential barrier to their falling within the definition of “carer” under the 2016 act.

I am clear that there is no suggestion that kinship carers who meet the definition of “carer” in the 2016 act will forfeit any other support that they might receive; any new support under the 2016 act would be in addition to existing support. It has always been our intention that kinship carers are not excluded from the definition of “carer” in the act, for a number of reasons, and feedback from stakeholders has supported that approach. Kinship carers often find themselves undertaking a caring role after a family member has fallen into crisis; they can feel that they have little choice in the matter when the only alternative is that the child is taken into formal care arrangements. No payment is received for the caring that they undertake; the kinship care allowance is not a fee paid for providing care, such as foster carers receive, but an allowance for accommodation and maintenance of the child or young person in their care. Any support provided through the 2016 act will be aimed at supporting the needs of the carer.

I am clear that kinship carers should not be excluded from the support available to carers under the 2016 act. Therefore, we are introducing the draft regulations to ensure that kinship carers who have formal agreements with a local authority can fall within the definition of “carer” in the 2016 act.

As no member has a question to put to the minister, we move to agenda item 4, which is the formal debate on the affirmative Scottish statutory instrument on which we have just taken evidence. Members should not put questions to the minister during the formal debate. I invite the minister to move motion S5M-06069.

Motion moved,

That the Health and Sport Committee recommends that the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 (Agreements of a Specified Kind) Regulations 2017 [draft] be approved.—[Shona Robison]

Motion agreed to.

Thank you very much, minister. We now move into private session.

12:10 Meeting continued in private until 12:25.