To ask the Secretary of State for Health

(1) whether a recent assessment has been made of the role of (a) carers' centres in Chatham and Aylesford constituency and (b) voluntary organisations in Kent and Medway in supporting carers;

(2) what financial assistance his Department provided to (a) Medway council, Tonbridge and Malling council, ( b ) Medway Primary Care Trust and (c) West Kent Primary Care Trust for the support of carers in the latest period for which figures are available.

A recent review was carried out by Kent county council of all carers services across Kent including the role and service delivery of Maidstone and Malling Carers Project (covering the Aylesford area).

Medway council received £1.039 million in 2010-11 for the carers element of their Area Based Grant. Figures are not available at borough council level for Tonbridge and Malling council. Kent county council (including Tonbridge and Malling) received £6.242 million in 2010-11 for the carers' element of their Area Based Grant.

In 2010-11, £100 million was made available within primary care trust (PCT) allocations to enable them to provide breaks for carers. This was not broken down by PCT.

The spending review has made £400 million additional funding available to support the provision of breaks for carers. The new monies will go into PCT budgets from April 2011 and into general practitioner consortium budgets from 2013.

The 2011-12 NHS Operating Framework, published on 15 December 2010, makes clear that PCTs should pool budgets with local authorities to provide carers' breaks, as far as possible, via direct payments or personal health budgets. The Operating Framework also states that local health services will be much more transparent and understandable by local people. For 2011-12, PCTs are required to publish their local plans to deliver both dementia services and services to support carers.