Social Care Bill and White Paper
Welcome commitments to prevention and person centred care but failure to address the funding gap and the role of advocacy.
The Government's White Paper Caring for our future: reforming care and support and Draft Care & Support Bill were published on 11th July.
Despite a laudable focus on promoting independence and well-being and transforming people's experience of care services, we are very concerned. We share the Care & Support Alliance's condemnation of delays in addressing how care will be paid for in future .
And we fail to understand how advocacy, which has the power to really transform the social care to deliver what matters to people, gets just one inaccurate mention in the White Paper (page 55):
"Advocacy services have been in place for more than 30 years, often providing support for people who lack mental capacity and who have no-one to act on their behalf. These services will continue to play a vital role in supporting people and we need to understand better the benefits of these services and how cost-effective they can be. We will therefore work with partners to develop and disseminate best practice and potential new business models"
Information and advice alone is not enough to ensure choice and control.
Download our full initial response below.
Comments on the Bill may be submitted until 19th October 2012 on the Department of Health web site.
Download a4a's response the the White Paper
Article published:2012-07-13
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