Councils should give better support to family carers: SCP

Local councils should give more support to people who care for friends or family members with psychological problems or mental handicaps, a government advisory body said on Tuesday.


The socio-cultural planning agency SCP says councils are being given increasing responsibility for carers by national government but that carers themselves feel isolated and under-valued. They are also unhappy about their contact with professional care-givers, the SCP report says.
The agency says it is particularly important that councils continue to help people looking after those with mental health issues financially and to offer them respite care.
Reforms
The SCP report coincides with government plans to radically overhaul the current system of personal care budgets which allow 130,000 people – including many elderly people and the handicapped – to choose their own care services.
Instead, most people claiming a personal care budget will have to ask their local council, healthcare insurer, friends and family for help.
The government is also reforming the education system for special-needs children in an effort to integrate them into normal schools. This too will become the responsibility of local rather than national government.

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