Unpaid carers delivery plan annual report 2024

This report sets out the progress made against our national strategy for unpaid carers. It describes our collective achievements working with local authorities, local health boards, the third sector and unpaid carers.

The report covers our priorities and achievements in the reporting period, January 2024 to March 2025.

We have funded the national short breaks scheme since 2022 at a cost of £9 million. We announced in February 2025 a further £3.5 million to continue this scheme until March 2026.

Funding is delivered to Carers Trust Wales, who receive £2.2 million and 7 Regional Partnership Boards who collectively receive £1.3 million. Short breaks are delivered by local authorities and local carer organisations. Further details can be found at short breaks scheme Carers Trust Wales.

The short breaks scheme supports creative and individualised approaches to breaks from caring. These can include equipment to pursue a hobby and leisure memberships as well as activity sessions and outings. We developed this scheme in response to the needs of unpaid carers who have told us they often want shorter and more frequent breaks. This scheme is provided in addition to the support local authorities have a duty to provide for unpaid carers, which includes respite.

The scheme has delivered 20,000 short break opportunities to unpaid carers of all ages in 2024 to 2025. The final figures for 2022 to 2025 are being established, but it is clear that this will significantly exceed the target of 30,000 breaks over 3 years.

80% of those benefitting from the scheme are providing more than 50 hours of care a week. Almost half of unpaid carers who have accessed the scheme were previously unknown to services and thereby the scheme has the additional benefit of providing a gateway to other support services.

We commissioned an independent evaluation of the scheme, undertaken by Bangor University. The final report will be available later this year, however initial findings based on 729 individual responses show:

• prior to the short break, 26% of carers said they rarely felt optimistic about the future, which reduced to 8% after the positive experience of the short break
• prior to the short break 44% of carers said they often feel left out, this reduced to 23% after a short break
• 27% of carers reported little social contact with people prior to the short break and this dropped to 11% after having a short break

The carers support grant was established in 2020 and ran to March 2022. The carers support fund was established from April 2022 with investment of £4.5 million by Welsh Government to continue the support to carers on low incomes for 2022 to 2025.

The fund provides emergency financial support for unpaid carers of all ages on low incomes to buy essential items. This could be food, a household item or a utility bill.

The fund is managed on behalf of the Welsh Government by Carers Trust Wales. Further information can be found at carers support fund Wales programme on the Carers Trust website.

The scheme also provides support information on managing finances and benefit entitlements. This can help families achieve more sustained improvements in their finances. Almost half of unpaid carers who have accessed the scheme were previously unknown to services and can be signposted to other forms of support.

In 2024 to 2025 the fund has supported over 11,600 carers and over 29,000 carers in 2022 to 2025. This is nearly double the original target of 15,000 for the 3 year period. The scheme has been continued for 2025 to 2026 with a further investment of £1.75 million.

Carers Trust Wales report the fund has been a crucial safety net for many carers facing financial hardship, where 26% of applicants were living in poverty and 9% in deep poverty. Unpaid carers have told us the fund has made a considerable difference to them and their family to be able to make an essential purchase or pay a bill.

We continued to provide £1 million to health boards to aid their support of unpaid carers when the person they care for is admitted to or discharged from hospital.

Health boards have schemes and initiatives in place to identify and support carers, particularly important where increased levels of care are needed at discharge. This ring-fenced funding forms part of the Regional Integration Fund and continues for 2025 to 2026.

We have invested £880,000 in the carer aware programme in 2022 to 2025. The programme is jointly delivered on behalf of the Welsh Government by Carers Wales and Carers Trust Wales.

The programme has focused on increasing carer recognition and support across health and social care settings. This has included training for social care workers and health care practitioners. A hospital discharge guide has been produced for healthcare staff to identify and engage with unpaid carers.

Targets for 2024 to 2025 for this programme have been achieved and funding extended to 2025 to 2026.

This programme is delivered by Carers Wales. The purpose is to inform, support and empower unpaid carers to manage their caring role whilst looking after their own health and wellbeing. The programme aims to ensure carers can access the right information and support at the right time for them.

The programme has a target for 2024 to 2025 to reach 4,500 unpaid carers and provide information via roadshows, leaflets, videos and a comprehensive website presence. This target has been exceeded with almost 10,000 unpaid carers reached.

An awareness campaign on carers’ rights at work and carers leave is underway, alongside the continued promotion of the working carers guide. This project has exceeded its target for providing employment rights awareness training to unpaid carers.

This programme is delivered by Age Cymru in partnership with Carers Trust Wales to develop models to identify and better meet the needs of older carers. Targets for this project for 2024 to 2025 have been achieved, including 5 organisations receiving funding to deliver peer-to-peer sessions, some including the use of virtual reality technology.

Training for hospital staff to support unpaid carer involvement and support at discharge have been undertaken and an information guide produced.

The young carers ID card operates across all local authorities in Wales. It is a key tool to help young carers identify themselves to:

• teachers and staff in schools and colleges
• GP or pharmacist

We produced good practice case studies, posters and social media messaging that were sent to local authorities in December to promote awareness and use of the card.

We have funded an updated suite of resources for primary and secondary school teachers to enhance the awareness and understanding of young carers within schools. These have been cascaded to schools.

We have recently established a strategic multi agency group as part of the Ministerial Advisory Group for Unpaid Carers to drive forward with our priorities for young carers in 2025 to 2026.

We continue to support the Welsh Government Young Carers Advisory Board, established in 2022. The board is made up entirely of young carers and provides a valuable resource to scrutinise Welsh Government policies and inform policy considerations from a young carers’ perspective. Hosting of the board has been provided by Children in Wales and transferred to Carers Trust Wales from April 2025.

Individual unpaid carers (adult and young carers) continue to be members of the Ministerial Advisory Group for Unpaid Carers. It is vital unpaid carers, and their representatives, are major contributors to policy development and oversight.

We previously commissioned the Association of Directors of Social Services (ADSS) Cymru to undertake a review of how unpaid carers rights were being upheld during and after the pandemic. Their report identified several areas for improvement, including:

• the provision of information
• advice and assistance
• access to carers’ needs assessments

Under the auspices of the Ministerial Advisory Group for Unpaid Carers, we are working with senior leaders in local authorities and health boards to drive national improvements in best practice. This work is ongoing.