Debate in Westminster Hall on the Review of the Carer’s Strategy

David Lepper (Brighton, Pavilion) (Lab/Co-op):
I have already congratulated my hon. Friend the Member for Worsley (Barbara Keeley) on securing this debate. I add my congratulations to those that have already been expressed to my hon. Friend the Member for Aberavon (Dr. Francis) on his sterling work on the legislation that he has taken through Parliament, and on his work on behalf of the all-party group on carers.
I declare a personal interest, in that I am a trustee of a Brighton and Hove-based charity called ARDIS, which was set up some 12 years ago specifically to support people with dementia and their carers. It is the needs of those husbands, wives, fathers, sons, daughters and friends caring for those with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia that I would like briefly to speak about in this debate.
The carers who care for people with dementia are often very elderly themselves and in need of support in their own right, let alone in their role as carers. I am thinking, for instance, of some research done in my constituency that revealed a carer aged over 100 caring for his slightly younger wife.
All too often, the support that is available across the country to elderly carers is patchy and piecemeal. In my area, as well as the charity of which I am a trustee, we have a carers’ centre and an active branch of the Alzheimer’s Society. I pay tribute to Neil McArthur, who, for 18 years, was the driving force behind that branch and its extensive work to support dementia sufferers and their carers. Sadly, he died suddenly some two weeks ago. I had the sad duty of attending his funeral yesterday. He inspired many of us locally to try to ensure that support is available for those often elderly people who care for relatives with dementia.
ARDIS can provide a dedicated support worker who is based in our carers’ centre and gives advice and support to carers of people with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, but the support that the charity can give to that post is, unfortunately, time-limited. It is important that older carers should have confidence that, when ARDIS’s financial support unfortunately must come to an end, the Government will have taken account of their particular needs.
As I have said, there are centres of excellence in different parts of the country. We have heard from hon. Members about what exists in their areas and I suspect that those of us who are here today are here partly because much good work is being done in the constituencies that we represent or the areas of which those constituencies are a part. Will the Minister ensure that the Government’s review not only takes into account the needs of young carers, which I mentioned earlier and which others have mentioned, and the needs of those caring for people with dementia, but considers carefully the good practice in many parts of the country and ensures that that can continue with their support? There is no doubt that there has been a sea change since the Labour Government’s introduction of the carers’ strategy a few years ago, but it is important to ensure that the good practice that already exists in local areas can continue, and that the best of that good practice is replicated across the country so that we can begin to move away from what I regret is still often piecemeal provision of support for people who perform the vital role of caring
In his reply the Minister, Ivan Lewis MP said :

My hon. Friend the Member for Brighton, Pavilion (David Lepper) raised the extremely important issue of the demographic realities in society, to which my hon. Friend the Member for North-West Leicestershire (David Taylor) also referred. People are living longer and longer, but in doing so have more and more difficult and challenging conditions, such as dementia and Alzheimer’s. In those circumstances, there is a growing challenge for society and carers. I suspect that we need specialist responses for people caring in those circumstances. We certainly need centres of excellence. There are a couple of those in my constituency: the Pinfold Lane day centre and Heathlands nursing home, where people with Alzheimer’s and their carers get the service that they would expect.