Sense welcomes new Commission on the future of health and social care in England
18 June 2013
National deafblind charity Sense today (18th June) welcomed the new Commission set up by the King’s Fund on the future of health and social care in England.
The new Commission will consider the way that current health and social care entitlements, benefits and funding are organised and the scope for better aligning them to meet the needs of patients and service users. Kate Barker CBE will chair the Commission.
Sue Brown, Head of Public Policy at Sense, said:
“The announcement of the new Commission is a welcome step forward in looking at whether we can go on viewing health and social care in such a separate way. Many of the deafblind people Sense works with have complex health and social care needs and the current system is not working effectively to meet them.
“Last year a report carried out by Sense found that 1 in 5 deafblind people surveyed did not get any social care support and 50% had never been properly assessed. Any reform to the care and support system needs to reduce these shocking statistics and help to ensure fair care for all in the future. We look forward to reading the Commission’s findings and recommendations.”
The Commissions findings and recommendations for the future will be released next year.
Notes to Editors:
For media enquiries contact the Sense press office on 0845 127 0060.
Sense publishes Fair Care for the future in July 2012 and the report can be read here: www.sense.org.uk/content/press-release-social-care-crisis
About Sense:
Sense is a national charity that has supported and campaigned for children and adults who are deafblind for over 50 years. There are currently around 250, 000 deafblind people in the UK.
Sense provides specialist information, advice and services to deafblind people, their families, carers and the professionals who work with them. We run services across England, Wales and Northern Ireland and employ 2,000 people most of whom work in services directly with deafblind people. Our patron is HRH The Princess Royal. Further information can be found on Sense’s website – www.sense.org.uk.
Deafblindness is a combination of both sight and hearing difficulties. Some of these people are completely deaf and blind, but others have some remaining use of one or both senses.
Causes of deafblindness include premature birth and exposure to rubella during pregnancy, which can cause babies to be born deafblind. Sense therefore supports MMR which has proven to be the most effective vaccination programme against rubella. Some genetic conditions, such as Usher syndrome, can also result in deafblindness. People can also become deafblind at any time through illness, accident or in older age.