Debate on adult green paper

We asked:- Can the adult green paper be delivered within
existing spending limits?

Here are some of the comments we received.

“I do not believe that the adult green paper can be
delivered within existing spending limits, let alone the prospect
of “£684 million in efficiency savings from adult social care
over the next three years”.

Labour’s record of placing top-down, macro-level ‘targets’
before the requirements of people is well-known among
professionals, and in times of ‘efficiency savings’ the groups most
likely to lose out are those least represented in popular culture. 
The Employers Forum on Disability commented in 1998 that the level
of public ignorance regarding the social model of disability and
the whole field of disabilities was so vast that the Disability
Rights Commission would be under-funded even if it received AS MUCH
AS the other equalities bodies!  (How would disabled people fare
under a single equalities body?)

People with learning difficulties are particularly under threat
from council spending cuts in this ‘market economy’ that presumes
the opportunity to –  in Michael Howard’s words – “put something
in.”  (Who will question the assumptions implicit in Howard’s words
in Labour’s epoch of ‘record low UK-unemployment?  I’m still
currently tied to a jobseekers agreement after more than two
decades of cumulative unemployment.)

The charity that plans to employ my paid services pending
[refreshed] enhanced CRB clearance and POVA listing check is
dedicated to helping people with mild-to-moderate learning
difficulties live as normal lives as possible. It is on a zero
growth budget, which does not bode well for match-funding
prospects.  Further, the future of its UK Online Centre is under
threat as bespoke charitable funding expires.  That UK Online
Centre has given service-users more than access to computers; it
has given them opportunities to network and to view computing as a
normal activity that is within their grasp, with help available
when required.

My prospective employer does more than provide services to
adults with mild-to-moderate learning difficulties.  It also

• provides a social network,

• favours job applications from people with learning
difficulties, and

• pools the expertise of a variety of people! 

The statement from John Ransford of the Local Government
Association, “The way you get efficiencies in the care market is to
pile them high and sell them cheap, like a supermarket,” is a gross
oversimplification.  A fundamental part of the mission of my
prospective employer is to help its service-users learn to make
informed choices and face the consequences! 

The consequences of council spending cuts might not be a General
Election issue in the mainstream, but could be devastating for
service-users and for this employee-designate.”
 
Alan Wheatley

“I do not believe that the paper can be implemented within
existing spending limits as we are not providing the preventive
work that is implied in the paper and to implement this it will
take more money – whether this will decrease over time is
unsure.

But if we really start preventive work it will need to be over a
much larger number of people. There will still remain a large
number of people whose choice will be to not receive services until
a crisis happens. More and more people are choosing to remain in
their own homes and full care provision is more expensive in the
community than residential care.”   

June Hoy
Team Manager
Adult Disability Team