By George Help for carers is great news
Last week was a particularly busy one for me and while virtual meetings have taken a little while to get used to, it’s incredible to know that technology can be there to support us and connect us.
It allows MSPs and parliament to keep the country running to the best of its ability.
As we head into our seventh week of lockdown, I think it’s really important to reinforce that the emergency measures are working.
By staying at home we are quite literally saving lives and limiting the spread of Covid-19 as much as possible. “Covid-19: A Framework for Decision Making” says the current lockdown is pushing the number of infectious cases down, but we also must acknowledge that the virus continues to pose a serious threat to public health in Scotland.
For this reason, can I urge you to read the Scottish Government’s paper “Test, Trace, Isolate, Support” - published last week – which outlines plans to handle the next phase of the battle against coronavirus.
The testing and tracing strategy will work hand in hand with other virus suppression measures, including physical distancing, hand washing and the use of face coverings, alongside new digital tools that are being developed to make tracing easier and more accurate.
The decisions on how we come out of lockdown will affect all of us – and so it’s important that these decisions are made as openly and collaboratively as possible, with councils, businesses, unions, public services and community groups in our town all contributing and forming part of the discussion.
Alongside the paper, the Scottish Government has also launched an online forum to give people the opportunity to share their reflections on lockdown restrictions – and I’d urge everyone to come forward with any ideas they have on how we can tackle the coming weeks together.
There are no easy answers but it is right for the Scottish Government to keep people up-to-date and be clear about the factors that inform decision making to help us all act with the wider health of the community in mind.
Also announced last week were the SNPs plans to invest a staggering amount of money into supporting unpaid carers in our communities during these unprecedented times.
I’m sure most of you know by now that this is something very close to my heart, so I jumped at the chance to raise this issue during First Minister’s Questions last week when I asked Nicola Sturgeon what is being done to highlight the work of our unpaid carers and how can we support them further.
I was, of course, delighted with the response and the plans to invest £19.2million into a one-off Coronavirus Carer’s Allowance Supplement. If approved by parliament, around 83,000 eligible carers across Scotland will get an extra £ 230.10 in June – with around 2,680 people right here in Renfrewshire to benefit from this additional financial support.
As a carer to my wife Stacey, I personally understand the challenges involved in caring for family members, friends and loved ones on a day-to-day basis, and I am acutely aware that these challenges have only grown while the lockdown measures have been in place.
It is vitally important to me that we support unpaid carers right here in
Paisley as much as we can and I know this increased financial support will go a long way to making life a bit easier for many of my constituents.
It’s during times like these that I’m reminded why I do this job – to help the people of Paisley, and indeed across the country, weather life’s storms as supported as possible, with as much open and transparent guidance and advice as necessary.
I know these are difficult and worrying times for us all, but I also know we will come out the other side stronger and hopefully a little bit more grateful for all the things we used to take for granted.