Nicola Sturgeon tells Aberdeen conference SNP will give £600 boost to Scottish carers

CARERS are set for a £600 annual windfall under plans unveiled by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon yesterday.

The First Minister used her address to the SNP conference in Aberdeen to pledge the 50,000 Scots who receive the Carer’s Allowance would see the welfare payment rise to match the Jobseeker’s Allowance.

The £40 million-a-year promise will kick in once the promised devolution of some welfare powers to Holyrood takes place after next year’s election.

Miss Sturgeon used her speech to set out her vision for a “can do Scotland” with a pledge to improve nursery care and pour an extra £200 million into the NHS to tackle waiting lists for hip and knee replacements, as well as cataract surgery.

The First Minister made minimal reference to a second referendum and instead said voters in next May’s Holyrood election should judge the SNP on its record in government but added the “educational divide between rich and poor” was her big priority.

She explained: “It matters so much to me that I’ve done something politicians don’t often do.

“I’ve put my own neck on the line.

“If I’m standing here seeking re-election five years from now I want to be judged on the progress we make.

“Access to high quality early years education for children from deprived backgrounds is the most effective way to

reduce the gap in attainment.

“That is why, in the next parliament, our most transformative infrastructure project will not be a bridge or a road or a railway important though all those things are.

“Our flagship infrastructure project will be a revolution in early years education and childcare.”

The SNP proposes to “substantially increase” the number of qualified teachers working in nurseries, with the First Minister pledging that by 2018 every nursery in Scotland’s most deprived areas will have an additional qualified teacher or childcare graduate.

The SNP has already committed to expanding free nursery care for vulnerable two year olds and all three and four year olds to 30 hours a week.

Miss Sturgeon revealed that “as we expand the hours of childcare that children are entitled to we will also increase the flexibility of it”.

She added: “Over the next parliament we will ensure that parents can opt to take their available hours of childcare to better suit their working patterns. They will, increasingly, be able to take them as full day sessions as well as half days. And they will have the right to spread those hours over the summer holidays as well as term time.”

If the SNP is voted into government for a record third time, the party has pledged an extra £200 million for the NHS to create a new network of elective treatment centres.

The Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank is already home to a specialist unit carrying out procedures such as hip and knee replacements and cataract surgery.

It would be expanded, with five new centres set up in Edinburgh, Livingstone, Dundee, Inverness and Aberdeen.

Ms Sturgeon hailed that as “real action” from the SNP government “making our NHS fit for the future”.

There was also a promise to carers, with the SNP leader saying she would use new powers over welfare that are coming to Holyrood as part of the Scotland Bill to increase the amount of cash they receive.

If her party wins in May she said the SNP will publish a Scottish Social Security Bill in the first year of the new parliament, setting out how it would use the “limited new welfare powers”.

She told the conference: “I can confirm one of the specific commitments that the Bill will include.

“The contribution carers make to our society is priceless. But the support they receive in the form of Carer’s Allowance is the lowest of all working age benefits.

“That is simply not fair.

“That is why I’m delighted to announce today that when our government gets the power to do so we will begin to increase Carer’s Allowance so that it is paid at the same level as Jobseeker’s Allowance.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives pointed out the idea to upgrade the Carer’s Allowance of £62.10 to the Jobseeker’s Allowance rate of £73.10, was announced by their leader Ruth Davidson two weeks ago.

He said: “Nicola Sturgeon seems to have been unsure in her speech whether to attack Conservative plans or steal them.”