Sense welcomes recommendations from the Joint Committee on the Draft Care and Support Bill

19 March 2013

The Joint Committee on the Draft Care and Support Bill published its report today, Tuesday, 19 March 2013. Sense welcomed the report and agrees with the Committee’s view that, while the Bill’s reforms are broadly positive, it ‘does not mean that it cannot be improved’.

The Joint Committee was tasked with scrutinising the draft Bill and making recommendations on how to improve it. The Committee consisted of twelve members from the House of Commons and the House of Lords and it considered both written and oral evidence from a range of individuals and organisations.

Many of the key areas that Sense has been concerned with have been addressed by the report. We were especially pleased to see the following points made:

  • The overall funding of social care, which is currently inadequate, will impact on how far the reforms in the Bill can be realised
  • Transition clauses that address the move between children and adult services should be strengthened by making reference to the Chronically Sick and Disabled Person’s Act and the Carers and Disabled Children Act and should be linked to the reforms currently being proposed by the Children and Families Bill
  • People should have maximum flexibility to use their direct payments as they like
  • Local authorities should ensure that the supply and demand for services should match up and that they take into account the cost of care when setting the rates they will pay providers. This is particularly important for deafblind people, who have specialist, and as a result, expensive, need.

Sue Brown, Head of Public Policy at Sense, gave evidence to the Committee on behalf of the Care and Support Alliance (CSA) and is quoted in the report on the topic of the eligibility threshold, which Sense and the CSA would like to be set at moderate:

‘The Care and Support Alliance would like to see a threshold that is probably roughly the equivalent to the current moderate band. The important thing to remember is “moderate” means moderate; “moderate” does not mean low. If you have a need that is moderate and not being met, that is having significant impact on your life.’

Whilst the Committee does not endorse the moderate level eligibility threshold, they do recognise – as Sue Brown highlighted in her evidence – that there is a connection between the eligibility threshold and an individual’s wellbeing. They recommend that the Secretary of State be required by the Bill to have regard for wellbeing when making regulations concerning eligibility.

The Government will publish its response to the Joint Committee’s report when the Care and Support Bill is published after the Queen’s Speech in May. Sense will continue to work to influence the Bill’s provisions so that deafblind people’s views and needs are taken into account.

For more information about Sense’s campaigning and policy work on social care, visit our social care section.