At the Northamptonshire Teaching Primary Care Trust (PCT) annual meeting, board members were asked to confirm whether the PCT's slice of Government money would be used for respite care as intended.

Carer, Andrew Bailey, criticised the PCT for addressing issues with patients in its presentations but not their loved ones who often look after them full-time.

Chief executive of the PCT, John Parkes said: ‘It's fair to say that, not deliberately, we have not valued to the fullest extent the work done by carers.’

But he added: ‘If we do get an allocation from the Government, and it's for respite care, then you have my absolute commitment that we will spend that money appropriately.’

The issue of help for carers is an important one because about one in 10 adults in the UK is a carer.

It is also thought that carers save the Government up to £87 billion a year, that would otherwise have to be spent via the NHS and social services.

The PCT's chairman, Professor William Pope, said that the trust now has problems like its inherited deficit and hospital superbugs under control and the board could look to the future.

He said: ‘We believe we are now in a position where we can start to deliver what the population of Northamptonshire really needs.’