The government is inviting views from disabled people and carers as the bill reaches committee stage. Although the oral evidence session was cancelled, Parliament has agreed to open up its web forum to disabled people as well as carers to feed in our views to the Joint Committee, chaired by Paul Burstow MP, as it conducts pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft Care and Support Bill.
To have your say follow this link: https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/joint-select/draft-care-and-support-bill/web-forum/
Then click on the different sections to give your views:
Responsibilities of Local Authorities
Assessing Needs
Safeguarding Adults at Risk of Abuse or Neglect
The forum is moderated and they want to hear the views and experiences of individuals rather than template responses.
Points you might want to make include the lack of mention of the Independent Living Fund in the bill and how local authorities are not able to meet the outcomes of the ILF. The bill makes proposals for safeguarding interventions and boards but concrete measures to prevent abuse would be to stop disabled people being sent into residential care, against their wishes, where they are at risk of abuse (as we have seen from cases like Winterbourne View) through the closure of the ILF.
The bill misses the opportunity to set a national eligibilty. Such a threshold should be set at low or moderate in line with the preventative aims the bill talks about.
You can download Inclusion London’s response to the draft bill here: https://www.inclusionlondon.co.uk/inclusion-london-comments-on-draft-care-and-support-bill
