[BERNADETTE]

I watched a programme earlier and thought maybe someone would have had raised the subject before me. As most of you know I am Ian's carer and I am quite lucky that I have plenty of family and friends to call on for emotional support. As it turns out there are one million carers in the North West and Yorkshire who along with the rest of the UK's carers save the goverment £57billion a year. Surely we can all agree that it is time to put money into the pot to make life easier for carers(especially young people who are frightened to voice their concerns) because they live in fear of being taken into care if the way they live their life becomes known to the Social Services. All in all the programme was an eye opener. The thing is where would this country be if it lost all the carers? And where would the £57billion per year suddenly appear from to take care of the people if the carers weren't there?