Cuts Cuts Cuts
+ Disability Alliance response
December 15th, 2009
Shaping the Future of Care Together: Disability Alliance response to the Department of Health Green Paper on adult social care reform in England
+ Full response from MIND
December 15th, 2009
We are concerned that the Green Paper does not address the considerable barriers to accessing care and support which many people with mental health problems face now. As well as articulating a long term vision for a social care system which better serves the needs of users, there is an urgent need for the Government to take short and medium term action to increase access to a wider range of preventive social care services. This will prove more cost-effective for Government and local authorities in the long run, based on a global cost-benefit analysis.
+ Response to the green paper on adult social care – Joseph Rowntree Fund
December 15th, 2009
JRF welcomes the green paper and is very supportive of its aims and focus. However, while a fair, sustainable and transparent funding system will be crucial, our evidence also shows that more funding is not the entire solution: cultural and value change are also required to transform the social care system.
And while cross-party consensus appears to be emerging on the importance of change, it remains to be seen whether there is sufficient political will to bring this about. Increased and inclusive public engagement in the big care debate will also continue to be vital.
+ Personal care at home bill – 14th Dec 2009 HoC debate
December 15th, 2009
2nd reading of this Bill took place in House of Commons. Much mention is made of the Green Paper for Social care
+ Proposals for new National Care Service at risk of failing BME communities and carers
December 15th, 2009
Minister for Care Services Phil Hope failed to allay growing concern at a national BME carers’ conference that the new social care green paper on the creation of a National Care Service will fall short in meeting the needs of BME communities.
Read in full -Afiya Trust
+ Croydon council response to Green paper
December 15th, 2009
We cannot develop an informed opinion of the funding options without seeing the financial basis for the proposals. It is crucial for the government to set out its assumptions about the wider economy and tax systems, and about the implications for local government and individuals, together with a clear sense of the gainers and losers of each option. Any modelling needs to include, specifically, the implications for younger adults with care needs, during and beyond their working age lives. Once this has been done, there may well be other options or combinations which merit consideration.
Click for full article Croydon
+ Welfare Reform – Penalising claimants and carers
December 14th, 2009
Benefits culture click for full article
Benefits Culture is a blog written by a small group of people who are on incapacity benefits in the UK.
We examine the myths surrounding life on benefits, and the outright lies the media and politicians tell.
We’ll tell you what being on income support is really like, and why various people who suffer from depression, or PTSD, or chronic illness are unable to work.
And what about carers in particular, and David Cameron’s call for “big society” to take care of those who cannot work, rather than “big government”? Big Society would demand many more carers, yet if removing “big government” means taking away benefits, how are carers to survive? You cannot attack those who are not working for profit as “economically inactive” and at the same time insist they take on more of the workload – not unless you don’t mind being an intellectually bankrupt hypocrite, at any rate.
Carers need strong and reliable support services. They need allowances and benefits. They need recognition and appreciation for the vital work they do. And they need us to speak up for them, just as they so often speak up for us.
+ WRVS
December 11th, 2009
We regret that the tax-funded option has been ruled out, as one of the successes of the
NHS has always been that risk was shared by the whole of society and most services are
free at the point of access. The additional resources needed for a National Care Service
are relatively small compared with the £100 billion spent each year on the NHS, for
example
+ Arthritis Care
December 11th, 2009
While Athrritis Care supports the Government’s vision of a system that is “fair, simple and affordable for everyone, underpinned by national rights and entitlements, but personalised to people’s individual needs.” Arthritis Care has emphasised that any new social care system must:
1. ensure that all those currently receiving benefits will continue to recieve the same level of support ;
2. protect the most vulnerable and those on lower incomes;
3. take a broad-view account of individuals’ needs;
4. be fair and non-discriminatory; and
5. be fully transparent and easy to navigate.
+ Disability Benefits – Opposition day
December 10th, 2009
A few excerpts…
Steve Webb….
“”If a person receives attendance allowance, someone will be looking after them 35 hours a week and, in principle, will be passported on to carer’s allowance. Could the Minister who responds to the debate say something about how such passporting might work in a world where new recipients receive a care package, but do not necessarily receive the benefits that passport them on to other benefits? One imagines that there are ways round that, but there would be consequences.”"
Anne McGuire…
“”To colleagues who are having difficulty dealing with the reform of social care or in engaging with a Green Paper consultation, let me explain that there is no independence for an elderly person living on attendance allowance in a local authority that does not see social care as one of its funding priorities. That is not about independence, it does not provide choice and it certainly does not give control. As for my friends in voluntary organisations such as Carers UK and the many others that have been mentioned, I have the utmost respect for them, but I think they know in their heart of hearts that we must have a genuine discussion about how to deal with the demographic time-bomb and the social care time-bomb that we all face. I understand exactly why they are advancing some of the arguments that we have heard today, but they need to become part of the ongoing discussion about how we can reform the system. Even the best of the voluntary organisations need to respond to the conundrum of how we should deal with a social care system in which two people are working for every one person over the age of 65.”"
Roger Berry …
“”The only part of the system that is currently national, universal and entitlement-based is the benefit system-attendance allowance, disability living allowance and other related benefits. My point of departure is this: if our purpose is to create a national care service, I find it strange that the part of the package that we should start considering is the one part of the service that is national, universal and entitlement-based. It would be much more logical, in summary, for attendance allowance, DLA and related national entitlements to be the basis on which we build a national care service”"
It must also be stated that, as we all know, many people’s experiences of local authority social services are not good. I am a former local councillor and I am passionate about local government, but we all know that there are local authorities, for faults that either are not their own-perhaps insufficient resources-or are their own that do not provide the quality service that is needed. When disabled people say to me, “For goodness sake, we must retain AA and DLA”, it is often because they cannot bear the possibility that the money would somehow end up under the control of local authorities with their current management of the social care system”"