No cash left for dignity

By Lisa James / @lisajames

Last week, as the attention of the media has been (quite rightly) focused on the appalling details of the hacking scandal, the Supreme Court made a decision which could have a potentially devastating impact on many older and disabled adults in receipt of social care in our society.

Elaine McDonald appealed to the Supreme Court after the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea withdrew her night-time care package – in place following a stroke 12 years ago – and instead decided that, although she is not incontinent, her needs could be adequately met by providing her with incontinence pads. The Supreme Court ruled in favour of Kensington and Chelsea.

This decision is both shameful and frightening. It seems to me to give local authorities the green light to only consider an individual’s safety when deciding what social care package they will provide. Decisions which are based solely on a person’s safety risk showing scant regard for their human dignity, independence and quality of life. Already, I hear of disabled adults having their care packages reduced to such a minimal level that they are denied any quality of life and I am scared about how much worse things could get.

By contrast, this last week also saw the Dilnot Commission publish its report into the future of adult social care. In addition to the much publicised recommendations on the future funding of social care, the report also recommends a very necessary and welcome national framework for assessments and eligibility. Such a system must have human dignity at its heart.
However, almost as soon as the report was published Andrew Lansley warned that “in the current public spending environment, we have to consider carefully the additional costs to the taxpayer of the commission’s proposals against other funding priorities.” Against this backdrop, I am starting to feel pessimistic that we can, finally, establish a fair and equitable social care system. Ed Miliband and the Labour Party must continue to press for cross-party work to come up with a desperately needed solution to a problem which appears to be getting steadily worse.

Our social care system should be there to serve some of the most vulnerable people in our society. It should be fair, it should be equitable and it should have human dignity at its core. Getting this right is too important to be a party political issue and it is too important to get lost in amongst the other issues that occupy our minds. We must fight for a system that protects and values us all as individuals.