Section 1. Received support and need for support amongst unpaid carers

This section provides information about the need for support among carers, as well as what types of support carers received. 

Support received and unmet need

Overall, 47% of unpaid carers reported that they had received support and 53% reported that they had not received any support.

This 53% who did not receive any support contained 15% of carers who told us they didn’t get any but felt they needed some. The remaining 38% reported that they did not feel that they needed any support.

Looking just at the carers who told us that they needed support for caring, 76% reported receiving some support and 24% reported they did not receive any support. 

Reports of both needing and receiving support were higher amongst carers who reported providing more hours of care per week than among those who provided fewer hours

Unpaid carers who reported providing the lowest numbers of caring hours per week (up to 19 hours) were most likely to say they didn't need any help (43%). They were also least likely to say they had received support (46%), and that they hadn't received support but felt they needed some (11%) (Figure 1).

Carers who reported spending 20-34 hours per week caring for someone, and those who reported spending 35+ hours per week caring for someone, indicated support needs at similar rates (69% and 68% respectively). Higher proportions of both groups reported an unmet need for support (both 19%) than the rate reported amongst all carers (15%).

Figure 1: Reports of both needing support and receiving support were highest for carers who provided more than 20 hours of care per week.

Bar chart showing the percentage of carers living in Scotland in 2025-26 by their stated need for support for caring, and how many hours of care a week they provide.

Types of support received

Looking just at those carers who received support and whose support we could categorise, 60% had received only informal support, and 40% had received some kind of formal support, with most of this 40% being made up of carers receiving non-breaks-related formal support (26%) (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Most carers who reported receiving support told us they had received only informal support for their caring role (60%).

Bar chart showing what types of support had been received by those carers who told us they had received help for their caring role.

More information on how we categorised the support people said they had received into informal, formal, and with or without support to take breaks is available in the Data and Methods section.