Sue Ryder responds to the Social Care Green Paper

13 November 2009

Anne-Marie Potter, Neurological Operations Manager at Sue Ryder, shares the healthcare charity’s response to the Government’s ‘Shaping the Future of Care Together’ green paper.

Sue Ryder provides health and social care for people living with long term neurological conditions and end of life care needs, in their own homes, 14 care centres and through community based services nationwide.

Any changes to social care systems or funding will have a direct impact on the people we support and our ability to provide services that meet people’s social care needs. As such, over the past three months we have conducted a series of workshops with our service users, staff and carers to gather a cross section of views on the government’s ‘Shaping the future of care together’ green paper.

Discussions with our service users highlighted three main areas of concern; the need for improved advocacy services, quality of the services available and support to navigate the personalisation system to best effect.

There was a consensus from our service users that ‘those who shout loudest get what they want’ and some of those navigating the care and support system without an advocate would struggle to get what they needed or were entitled to. Sue Ryder is calling for improved, government-funded advocacy services - delivered by independent agencies - for people using the social care system.

Our service users also questioned why more was not being done to address the quality of care in the green paper. Our service users in residential care spoke of past experiences of (non Sue Ryder) homecare support; some did not feel their carers had enough experience and understanding of neurological conditions, many had experienced missed appointments and staff absences that equalled a lack of continuity of care. We would like the quality of social care services to be examined alongside reform of the system.

Whilst we believe ‘Shaping the Future of Care Together’ is a move in the right direction to meet changing social care needs and demands, there remains a number of items within the green paper that require clarity. For instance, how will the system support people aged under 65 years old (services and funding available), and we’d like to see meaningful information in the white paper on how joined-up services between social care, health, housing and benefits services will be achieved.

With an aging population and three million people living in the UK with a progressive neurological condition that require care and support to live the life they want to, an effective and inclusive social care system is vitally important. Sue Ryder will continue to work with all concerned to achieve this vision.

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