Press release: Disabled people's lives are not a cost to be cut

Merton CIL recently submitted evidence to the Long term funding of adult social care inquiry by the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee. The inquiry is being held ahead of a planned green paper on social care.

We have made similar submissions to Government inquiries before, and here at Merton CIL we felt a bit frustrated to be responding to the same questions over and over again. So this time round, we told the inquiry that they were asking the wrong questions. We said that there needed to be a better understanding of Disabled people using social care, as well as older people. We said that the inquiry should look more broadly about how to support people to live independently, rather than focusing just on social care.

Disabled people's lives are not a cost which needs to be managed, limited, or somehow ‘made sustainable’. In actual fact, costs are created by local and central government’s failure to invest in prevention, and failing to invest in making communities suitable for independent living. Some of the practices and approaches of social care delivery create costs.

Finally, we said that if the Government wants to fund social care sustainably for the long term, then they need to reframe the debate to one about investment in Disabled people’s potential and life chances, and provide proper mechanisms to challenge discrimination and disadvantage.

You can read our full submission to the inquiry here: http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/housing-communities-and-local-government-committee/long-term-funding-of-adult-social-care/written/80829.pdf

You can read more about the Government's planned green paper here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-to-set-out-proposals-to-reform-care-and-support