The government has unveiled its New Deal for Carers, which it hopes will provide more funding to local councils to provide better respite care.

Announcing the new initiative, the Department of Health revealed that £33 million of additional funding would be made available to carers. Of this money, £25 million will be used to deliver emergency respite care.

Of the remaining money, £3,000,000 will be spent on a new national helpline for carers and £5,000,000 will go on providing first-aid training and other skills programmes.

Ivan Lewis, the minister for care services, called the UK’s six million carers “hidden heroes”. He also said that the new package of funding would “improve the quality of life for carers”.

While Age Concern welcomed the extra money, the charity said that more still had to be done to support the UK’s care community.

“While investment into respite care for carers in crisis is important, more planned respite care - including the provision of practical support such as cooking, cleaning and shopping - should also be offered,” said Gordon Lishman, Age Concern’s spokesperson.