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The charity Leonard Cheshire Disability's response to the publication of a white paper on the funding of social care

31 March 2010

Commenting on the long-awaited publication of the white paper, John Knight, Director of Policy and Campaigns at the charity Leonard Cheshire Disability, said:

Leonard Cheshire Disability, alongside the many tens of thousands of disabled people it supports, remains committed to reform of the social care system. This commitment is based on a belief that social care plays an essential part in supporting disabled people to be who and what they want to be and that the current system is unable to fully realise these aspirations.

We acknowledge the significant strides made in reforming the system to date in the recent past – in particular, Putting People First, realising choice and control through personal budgets and embedding principles of the rights agenda into the planning and delivery of services.

Leonard Cheshire Disability welcomes the publication of the White Paper, but is disappointed with its lack of detail. Whilst appreciating the enormity of the task facing any administration seeking to achieve such large scale reforms, we would have wished to see more specifics about how the system can be improved for people of working age who use social care services throughout their lives. As Leonard Cheshire Disability’s report Your Money or Your Life showed many disabled people of working age are unable to access social care services because of ever-tightening budgets and inconsistent eligibility criteria.

The charity welcomes the commitment in the white paper to ensure that under the proposed National Care System that a person’s care needs will determine the support that they receive, and not their means. It will be crucial, however, to make sure that care needs are properly assessed, and there is little detail in the White Paper to show that all disabled people will receive the care that they need.

Disabled people are twice as likely as people without a disability to live in poverty. The proposed Commission looking at how the Fair Care Premium will operate must recognise this, and make sure that disabled people are not trapped in poverty by social care charged. The Commission must fully involve disabled people and acknowledge the particular issues they face, both in terms of the extra costs of disability, and also the fact that some people will require a lifetime engagement with the social care system.

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For further information, please contact Amy Burns at 020 3242 0313. Email:

Editors Notes

Leonard Cheshire Disability supports over 21,000 disabled people in the UK and works in 52 countries. We campaign for change and provide innovative services that give disabled people the opportunity to live life their way.