Young Carer Grant consultation: our response

1. Introduction

1. Ministers have made a commitment to introduce Young Carer Grant (YCG) from Autumn 2019. It is intended that the YCG will help deliver the social security outcomes that carers:

• are supported to look after their own health and wellbeing, improve their quality of life and reduce any negative impact of caring.
• participate fully in society and, if they choose, engage in training, education and employment opportunities, as well as social and leisure activities.
• have an increased sense of control and empowerment over their lives.

2. The Young Carer Grant Working Group was established in October 2017. It consists of young carer representatives, young carer services, local and national carer organisations, national youth organisations and CoSLA. The group helped to gather evidence, bring a variety of informed perspectives and provide feedback on proposals.

3. A Young Carer Panel was set up in early 2018. The Young Carer Panel was made up of young carers and young adult carers aged 16 to 25 years old. Panel members had the opportunity to take part in research and participation exercises such as focus groups and surveys. Initial findings from 15 focus groups, carried out across the country in 2018, were published on the Scottish Government website.^[1]

4. A consultation on YCG regulations was launched^[2] on 17 September 2018 and closed on 10 December 2018.

5. We received 75 responses to the consultation. During this period we engaged with 107 stakeholders through 11 consultation events across Scotland.

6. In addition to the formal consultation, we received over 60 responses to the YCG survey. The survey was designed to be user friendly and written in plain English. People could take part online, over the phone or using a paper form. An analysis of the consultation responses has been published.^[3]