Just published by the Centre for Welfare Reform (CWR): a paper by Belinda Schwehr entitled ‘
‘Legal Literacy in Adult Social Care”.
Belinda introduces it as ‘a considered and serious paper about what’s gone wrong in adult social care’. The CWR describes it as ‘provocative’.
It is hard not to be come angry and depressed at its analysis of what has and is still going wrong; you may even feel some sympathy for social care professionals, faced with systemic pressure to ‘de-professionalise’.
The content is referred to by the CWR in its submission to the Communities and Local Government (CLG) Committee’s current inquiry into the financial sustainability of local authority adult social care and the quality of care provided. To keep yourself updated on the progress of this enquiry (e.g. copies of written evidence and submissions to the inquiry, video links and recordings of oral testimony) visit the Committee website (see Links below)
The report is available here as a downloadable PDF . It is only 29 pages long, and very readable.
Warning: some of the actions and behaviours of local authorities described in the paper may cause your jaw to drop. As the author says “These examples show a positive disrespect for the notion of the rule of law – welfare law – in the discharge of public functions, to my mind.” And unfortunately many carers will recognise that they have been on the receiving end of such actions and behaviours…
Links:
- Belinda Schwehr: http://www.schwehroncare.co.uk/a-considered-and-serious-paper-about-whats-gone-wrong-in-adult-social-care/
- Centre for Welfare Reform: http://www.centreforwelfarereform.org/library/type/pdfs/legal-literacy-in-adult-social-care.html
- Parliamentary Committee on Communities and Local Government: http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/communities-and-local-government-committee/news-parliament-2015/adult-social-care-evidence-16-17/