Responses to consultation on adult social care doubled

Stephen Ladyman

The extended consultation period for the government’s new
vision for adult social care has doubled the number of responses,
and increased the level of service user involvement, according to
the Social Care Institute for Excellence, writes Paul
Stephenson.

The consultation was extended to the end of last month after
community care minister Stephen Ladyman said he was unhappy with
the lack of service user involvement. He postponed the publication
of a green paper on the future vision for adult social care until
the autumn as a result.

SCIE, which is analysing the consultation, said this week that
it had received nearly 200 extra responses to the proposals. It
also said a series of service user focus groups, which will
continue until the end of the month, were helping to involve people
with learning difficulties.

Groups representing those with learning difficulties had
criticised the way the way the first wave of consultation was
handled.