Received from: TUC Disabled Workers Conference
There is no doubt that social care is in crisis. A crisis brought about by years of
Conservative governments’ ideologically driven austerity policies. Today we have a failing system unable to meet current need; and certainly, unfit to respond to predicted future growth.
Healthcare and social care serve very different kinds of need. The overwhelming majority of disabled people who receive social care do not receive healthcare interventions through their packages. This makes the NHS responsible for social care which subsequently medicalises the service. This is not the answer.
A National Independent Living Support Service is the way forward; a resource that best affords disabled people choice, control and independence.
Therefore, Congress calls on a newly elected Labour government to establish a National Independent Living Support Service (NILSS). A service that:
i. gives new universal right to independent living
ii. is enshrined in law and delivered through a new national independent living
service co-created between government and disabled people
iii. is funded through general taxation and managed by central government
iv. is free at the point of need
v. is led by disabled people and delivered locally in co-production with
disabled people.
TUC Disabled Workers Conference