The Government recently published a White Paper on the legislative proposals for the Health and Care Bill.

The new legislative framework seeks to facilitate greater collaboration within the NHS (and between the NHS, local government, and other partners), to improve the health and wellbeing of local people and to support any recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

We are very disappointed there is currently no explicit mention of unpaid carers in the White Paper proposals for the Bill.

Our main calls for the forthcoming Bill include:

• A duty on the NHS to have regard to carers and to promote their health and wellbeing.
• Clear and explicit references to carers when there are duties for new bodies to consult.
• A carer representative on key decision-making bodies.
• Clear inclusion of carers in the Care Quality Commission’s proposed new responsibilities around the Care Act 2014.

In addition, we do not want to see the duties around discharge to assess being removed -without some safeguards about carers’ rights under the Care Act 2014.