Health and care experience survey 2017 to 2018: national results

10. Experiences of Carers

 

Summary

• As described in Chapter 9, many people who need help for everyday living receive their support from friends and family instead of, or in addition to, formal services. The survey indicated that 16 per cent of people look after or provide regular help or support to others.
• Forty per cent of carers said they looked after a parent, with 27 per cent saying that they cared for a partner or spouse.
• Overall, when asked about specific aspects of caring, people were less positive than they were in previous years.
• Carers were most positive about having a good balance between caring and other activities, with around two thirds agreeing that they did.
• Carers were least positive about support to continue caring. Overall, 37 per cent of carers said that they felt supported to continue caring which is a decrease of six percentage points from 2013/14.

 

Introduction

The contribution of carers in looking after people, including some of the most vulnerable in society, is widely recognised. Many people who get help and support for everyday living receive it from friends and family instead of, or in addition to, formal services: the survey indicates that 40 per cent of people who received help did so out with formal services.

Chapter 4 of this report describes a vision in which people who provide unpaid care are supported to reduce the potential negative impact of their caring role on their own health and wellbeing. This vision is being delivered now but will be given further impetus through the implementation of the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016. Alongside other Scottish Government and partners' policy commitments and initiatives, this aims to support carers in their roles.

 

Characteristics of Carers

The survey asked people whether they had carried out any regular unpaid caring responsibilities for family members, friends, neighbours or others because of either a long-term physical / mental health / disability or problem relating to old age.

Sixteen per cent of people indicated that they look after or provide regular help or support to others. The 2015 Scotland's Carers publication ^[27] describes in some detail the latest data from a variety of sources to show the diverse profile of carers in Scotland. It identifies the Scottish Health Survey as the current preferred source for estimating unpaid caring prevalence, which reported that 17 per cent of Scotland's adult population had caring responsibilities in 2012/13 ^[28] .

The age and gender distribution of carers who responded to the survey is shown in Table 3. It is broadly the same as reported in the 2015/16 survey. Thirty six per cent of carers who responded to the survey were aged 65 and over, and six per cent were aged 17 to 34. This latter figure is much lower than other sources, because there is a lower response rate by younger adults to the Health and Care Experience survey. Overall, there was a higher proportion of carers who are women (62 per cent compared to 38 per cent of men).

Table 3: Characteristics of carers: age and gender

Age Group	Male	Female	Other	All
17 to 34	2%	4%	0%	6%
35 to 64	19%	39%	0%	58%
65 and over	17%	19%	0%	36%
All adults	38%	62%	0%	100%

 

Caring Responsibilities

Of those who provide care, the distribution of the number of hours per week is shown in Table 4. It shows that very similar proportions (30 per cent) of people provided up to four hours and more than 50 hours of care a week, with slightly fewer providing between five and 19 hours of care a week. It was less common for people to provide between 20 to 49 hours of caring per week. This distribution is very similar to the one reported in previous surveys.

Figure 10.1: Distribution of hours of caring per week

A new question in 2017/18 asked carers who they cared for. Their responses are shown in Table 5. Forty per cent of carers said that they looked after a parent, with 27 per cent saying that they cared for a partner or spouse.

Table 4: Who do you care for?

Who do you care for? [29]	%
Partner or Spouse	27
A parent	40
A child	14
Another relative	19
A friend or neighbour	8
Someone else	2

 

Experiences of Caring and Impact on Wellbeing

The survey asked carers about their experiences of five specific aspects of caring and the impact on their wellbeing. Figure 10.1 sets out the percentage of positive responses to these statements.

Figure 10.2: Percentage of people responding positively to statements regarding caring responsibilities

As with the previous survey, the responses in 2017/18 were mixed. However, overall the results were less positive than in previous years. Carers were most positive about the balance between caring and other things in their life, although the percentage agreeing has decreased from 69 per cent in 2013/14 to 65 per cent in 2017/18.

Carers were least positive about support to continue caring. Overall, 37 per cent of carers said that they felt supported to continue caring which is a decrease of six percentage points from 2013/14. Only 38 per cent said that caring did not have a negative impact on their health and wellbeing, which is also six percentage points less than in 2013/14.

In line with the question in Chapter 9 (relating to care and support services received), fewer carers thought that services were well coordinated (40 per cent in 2017/18 compared with 47 per cent in 2013/14).