A COUNCILLOR who helped care for her grandmother as a child has questioned how easy it is for unpaid carers in the Vale of Glamorgan to access help.

Vale of Glamorgan Council's healthy living and social care scrutiny committee met on Tuesday, 4 March to discuss the support offered in the county for unpaid carers.

The council said it has a number of opportunities on offer for people, including respite, but Plaid Cymru councillor, Cllr Amelia Collins, said she wasn't aware of the help that she could have had.

She said: "There are lots of carers out there that social services are not aware of. For 25 years I was one of them.

"There was no social services involvement with my grandmother and from the age of 12 to 37 I was helping to care for her.

"How easy is it for people to access these services? How well publicised are they? Because I had no idea any of this help was available right up until 2019 when my grandmother passed away."

TuVida's Vale Unpaid Carers Hub provides information and advice to unpaid carers, and they can be referred by social services or they can self-refer.

From the moment the service commenced on April 28, 2024, to the end of December 2024, the hub received 377 referrals and had 2,791 contacts with unpaid carers.

In response to Cllr Collins' question, Vale of Glamorgan Council's operational manager for safeguarding and service outcomes, Natasha James, said: "I think one of the requirements and one of our commitments is recognition, raising awareness, supporting people to identify themselves as unpaid carers so they can access this support.

"We try really hard and we send bulletins out every week. There are lots… from our third sector providers who use GP surgeries to promote their information support advice services.

"There is a plethora of support that is out there and it is making sure that we publicise those… and that we get the widest reach possible.

"I think for your circumstances… you would have been a young carer. We have got lots of young carers in school programmes."

Ms James later went on to add: "I hope that we are expanding our reach and that we [are] able to support people to identify themselves as unpaid carers and as such be able to find information and advice and support for themselves through the plethora of services that are out there."

A report on unpaid carers presented to councillors on Tuesday states respite continues to be one of the main requests made by carers for support in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Another member of the scrutiny committee, Cllr Marianne Cowpe, said: "I think we have recognised in the discussion that respite care individually tailored is very important and as we know, there isn't enough of it really.

"Even people who get some respite care, for example a client that I visited is looking after an adult with a lot of needs and they get one weekend a month and that is it and really they would want a bit more."

The Vale of Glamorgan Council report adds: "We have been able to meet a wide range of needs by continuing to make funding available.

"Practitioners are actively encouraged to be creative and innovative in finding solutions to meet the individual needs of unpaid carers."