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Scottish Tory Party conference: Ruth Davidson pledges to fund carer breaks Scottish Tory Party conference: Ruth Davidson calls for lower taxes
(about 13 hours later)
The Scottish Conservatives have said they would fund all full-time carers in Scotland to take a week's break. Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson has said the tax burden for "ordinary" people must be reduced in a Scotland which has rejected independence.
Party leader Ruth Davidson will make the pledge at the party's annual conference in Stirling. She made the plea to party delegates gathered for a two day conference.
The respite funding would be available to any of the 115,000 people providing care for more than 50 hours a week. Ms Davidson said a "no" in next year's independence referendum did not mean a vote for "no change" in Scotland.
Ahead of her speech, Ms Davidson said the rights of carers, who sacrifice careers to care for a loved one, needed to be strengthened. The MSP also outlined her plans to give extra help to full-time carers and to give parents a greater say in choosing schools for their children.
National Carers Week, which highlights the challenges faced by people caring for others, begins on Monday and runs through until next Sunday. She told the Stirling conference: "The tax powers of the Scottish Parliament - those it has now and those it will gain in the future - must be used only one way.
The Conservative Party said that research showed that nearly four out of every 10 carers had not had a break from their caring responsibilities lasting longer than two days. "To drive down the tax burden in Scotland."
It wants to address this by establishing a National Carers' Break Guarantee. The politician then turned to education, telling party members that there needed to be a drive "for excellence in our schools".
Ms Davidson will tell delegates: "Every carer in Scotland who provides 50 or more hours of care each week will be entitled to a full week's break each year. Ms Davidson said: "A Scotland that succeeds is one in which every child has an equal chance to get on in life, no matter their background."
She explained that for too many young people it was the system that failed them.
The Scots Tory leader said: "According to Education Scotland, nearly one-third of secondary schools in Scotland's most deprived areas are either 'weak' or 'unsatisfactory'.
"That's compared to one-tenth in our least deprived communities.
"So we know there's a problem.
"The question is whether or not the Scottish government is prepared to take the action needed to deal with it."
Ms Davidson then announced that the "route to a better education" was giving parents an "opportunity voucher" with a value equivalent to the cost of their child's schooling.
The voucher would be used to transfer a child to a better performing school.
She then spoke about her pledge to give unpaid carers in Scotland a guaranteed one week respite break.
'No basis in fact'
Ms Davidson said there were some 660,000 people who were in a key caring role.
She added: "It's time that Scotland's carers were given the break they need and deserve.
"And that's why I am today able to announce the Scottish Conservatives will promise to give them that break - a National Carers' Break Guarantee.
"Every carer in Scotland who provides 50 or more hours of care each week will be entitled to a full week's break each year.
"We will provide a budget to cover the cost of that week's break for every eligible carer."We will provide a budget to cover the cost of that week's break for every eligible carer.
"And we won't allow the funding to be diverted away to other uses. "And we won't allow the funding to be diverted away to other uses."
"It will be reserved for their specific purpose; guaranteed funding guaranteeing carers' respite breaks." The number of Scottish carers estimated to be eligible is 115,000.
Respite budgets On the issue of the independence referendum, Ms Davidson said the SNP's approach was based on "blind assertion with no basis in fact".
Ms Davison said that although not every carer would choose to take the annual break, everyone assessed as being eligible would have it guaranteed. The people of Scotland go the polls on Thursday, 18 September, next year when they will be asked the single question: "Should Scotland be an independent country?"
How they choose to take their respite would be up to the carer. The party estimated the cost of funding the guarantee would be £50m a year, part of which already exists in current respite care budgets. Ms Davidson told the conference: "I don't want to have to choose between two different parts of my identity.
Also at the conference, former Labour chancellor Alistair Darling is due to address a fringe meeting. "I am Scottish first. And I will always be Scottish first and I will always put Scotland first.
Mr Darling will be at an event organised by the pro-Union campaign group Better Together. "But that does not diminish in any way that I am British too and proud to be so."
He will argue that the case for Scottish independence is "falling apart" but will warn campaigners who want to keep the UK together not to be complacent.