Parliamentary probe into social care law overhaul begins

MPs and peers with significant social care experience have launched a probe into the government’s plans to overhaul social care through the draft Care and Support Bill.

The bill would place adult safeguarding on a statutory footing, introduce a nationwide threshold for council-funded adult care support and introduce new rights to support for carers, as well as codifying the multiple existing laws on social care.

A joint committee of MPs and peers has been set up to scrutinise the draft bill, chaired by ex-care services minister Paul Burstow, who launched the draft bill while still in office in July. It also includes crossbench peer Baroness Sally Greengross, chief executive of the International Longevity Centre-UK; former Labour health minister and social services director Lord Norman Warner; ex-Cafcass chair and former chief executive of the Carers National Association (now Carers UK) Baroness Jill Pitkeathley (also Labour); and former Local Government Association chair Margaret Eaton (Conservative).

The committee has launched a call for written evidence on the draft bill from organisations and individuals with an interest in social care. Questions it is asking people to consider include:

• What is your view of the financial and other implications for local authorities of the new care and support responsibilities set out in the draft Bill?
• Are the arrangements for setting and enforcing national minimum standards for care and support clear?
• Does the draft Bill make adequate provision to help people achieve personalised care and support and to manage the payment process?
• To what extent do the safeguarding provisions ensure that all those at risk are adequately protected, and should these provisions be extended in any way?

The committee will take submissions until 11 January 2013. It will then take oral evidence up until 7 March 2013.

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