Current status: Answered by Maree Todd on 25 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to support unpaid carers to stay in work, in light of a recent report by Carers Scotland, which states that 71% of female unpaid carers who are looking after the home, family or dependants full time said that they had given up work to provide care.
The Scottish Government recognises the significant barriers faced by unpaid carers, many of whom are women, in accessing employment and fair work in the labour market. This is why unpaid carers have been identified as one of our key cohorts for support.
We have made a Programme for Government commitment to provide employability support to meet the needs of all parents or carers on a demand-led basis by ensuring closer working across childcare, education, housing, justice, and health services, so that people can quickly and easily access the support needed to enter and stay in work.
The Scottish Government’s National Carers Strategy (https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-carers-strategy/) published in December 2022, sets out our cross-government approach to carer support and recognition, with an emphasis on the need for collaboration between national and local government, the third sector, wider public and private sector. The Strategy sets out the importance of all employers being flexible and supportive of carers in the workforce and outlines our commitment to fund and promote the Carer Positive employer accreditation scheme. There are now more than half a million employees working in 290 Carer Positive organisations across Scotland.
We are working to ensure holistic wrap-around support is available throughout our support services. No One Left Behind is our approach to delivering an all-age, place-based, person-centred model of employability support in Scotland. Services are voluntary, aiming to support individuals (including paid and unpaid carers) towards the right job at the right time. The No One Left Behind Strategic Plan 2024-27 was published in September 2024, outlining our priorities for devolved employability services moving forward, and reaffirming our commitment to continuous improvement and expanding reach of our services including unpaid carers.
Over 73,000 people received support through No One Left Behind from April 2019 to September 2024.