Skip to main content
Loading…

Chamber and committees

Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of Carers UK and Carers Scotland

  • Submitted by: Carol Mochan, South Scotland, Scottish Labour.
  • Date lodged: Monday, 24 November 2025
  • Motion type: Standard Motion
  • Motion reference: S6M-19876

That the Parliament congratulates Carers UK and Carers Scotland on celebrating the charity’s 60th anniversary; acknowledges its years of dedicated service, providing advice and support to unpaid carers and campaigning to improve their rights; understands that the organisation began in 1965, when Reverend Mary Webster, who was an unpaid carer herself, founded the first carers' organisation, the National Council for the Single Woman and her Dependants, which, in 1999, became Carers UK; recognises the substantial growth of the number of unpaid carers, with over 627,700 unpaid carers in Scotland, whose contribution is worth an estimated £15.9 billion; commends the organisation’s unwavering commitment to campaigning for carers' rights and ensuring that unpaid carers are informed, empowered and valued; believes that unpaid carers play an essential role across Scotland and that they should have access to the support and recognition that they deserve; welcomes the role that MSPs have had in improving carers' rights, including improvements to assessment, support, social security and most recently legislating for a right to a break from caring; believes, however, that to embed these rights and to ensure that they are delivered effectively, this government and future ones must go further to support unpaid carers, including by investing in a dedicated health inequalities strategy and flexible health services, screening for unpaid carers to tackle the damage to health that they face, reducing the poverty they experience and providing ringfenced investment in direct support for unpaid carers, including in carers centres, and delivering a right to a break from caring, and expresses gratitude to all those who have been involved in Carers Scotland and Carers UK for their service and advocacy on behalf of Scotland’s caring community.


Supported by: Jeremy Balfour, Colin Beattie, Miles Briggs, Foysol Choudhury, Tim Eagle, Annabelle Ewing, Bill Kidd, Liam McArthur, Alex Rowley, Kevin Stewart, Paul Sweeney, Mercedes Villalba, Brian Whittle