The Scottish National Party’s (SNP) candidate for the East Sutherland and Edderton has welcomed the arrival of Carers’ Week 2026 which runs from 8th-14th June.
Carers’ Week is an annual campaign to raise awareness of caring, highlight the challenges unpaid carers face and recognise the contribution they make to families and communities throughout the UK.
It also helps people who don’t think of themselves as having caring responsibilities to identify as carers and access much-needed support.
Rebecca Machin said, “This week is Carers’ Week.
“Across the Highlands, thousands of people of all ages provide unpaid care and support to family members, friends and loved ones.
“A carer is someone who provides support to a family member or friend with a disability, illness, mental health condition, addiction or someone who needs extra help as they grow older.
“It isn’t someone who volunteers or is employed to provide support.
“As a teacher, and then a depute and head teacher, I was acutely aware of the way good schools worked hard to help young carers.
“Because, often, a young person’s biggest success is getting through the door of a school and all members of staff need to be mindful of that.
“The pupil who got their sibling up and dressed and into school while their mother was being taken to hospital and achieved all that, despite being 14 years old, but was harangued for being late and not having a pencil.
“Or the pupil worried to leave home because of the potential impact on their parent, who went on to nursing and helping others who only realised much later that, “the school funds,” to help them get to interview came out of a member of staff’s pocket.
“Secondary school pupils who live in households with addiction issues will regularly not qualify for free school meals but will not have access to money for lunch, or food at home, to make a packed one.
“Let us not forget, there is stigma around these things, even if we want there not to be.
“You regularly hear people saying, “parents should look after their own children,” as though this is something which everyone can achieve easily.
“But, like it or not, it isn’t.
“And so, schools continue to lend dinner money, provide uniform and offer pencils because this is a low impact way of ensuring that no child opens the door to a classroom guaranteed to be singled out and publicly made different.
“Good schools have always found ways to protect and shield and smooth the way for the wildly complicated backgrounds some of our young people face.”
Machin, who has herself been a carer and has a partner who was a young carer, continued:
“Creating communities, including schools, where carers feel recognised, supported and included benefits everyone.
“It is not only compassionate, it’s practical.
“Preventative support is always better than crisis intervention.
“A carer-friendly community is a more resilient community, which is why building such communities should be everyone’s business.
“Everyone needs to work to make this a reality.
“It’s not political, it’s just the right thing to do.”
