A disability charity has relaunched a creative campaign to raise awareness of the importance of adult social care and of funding it properly.
United Response has brought back its ‘Postcards from the Edges’ campaign to ask people what good social care means to them.
Ahead of the Autumn Statement on Wednesday, November 23, United Response wants to tell the government, in particular Chancellor Philip Hammond, why adult social care is so important, what it allows people to do and, most importantly, why it needs to be properly funded.
Postcards from the Edges was originally launched in 2013, to mark United Response’s 40th Anniversary. The award-winning creative campaign originally encouraged anyone with an interest in disability to express themselves creatively on a blank postcard, using words or pictures to convey whatever they like. It aimed to give a people with learning disabilities a platform and to enable them to raise awareness of what mattered to them; their hopes, fears, and dreams for the future.
Now in 2016, with adult social care firmly on the public agenda, United Response has re-launched the campaign and brought its ‘Postcard from the Edges’ website right up-to-date. Now, as well as being able to upload postcards online, visitors can upload ‘video postcards’ explaining what adult social care means to them.
Diane Lightfoot, United Response’s director of policy and communications, said: “Adult social care is not just about providing care for older people but also provides a lifeline for adults with a whole range of disabilities. Through Postcards from the Edges, we aim to provide a platform to enable disabled people to have their say; people who still far too often find themselves pushed to the edges of mainstream society.
“Adult social care as a public service attracts limited media interest and is poorly understood. The limited public debate it receives means that the funding for it has been targeted by successive governments leading to it being cut to the bone. Only recently has it become acknowledged that adult social care funding is at a crucial tipping point and that immediate action is required to protect the lives of the people who depend on the social care system.”
United Response want to show the government and wider society what good adult social care looks like and what it means for the person receiving it, their families and the communities they live in. The charity is seeking the views of everyone involved throughout the support chain from the person receiving care, to individuals giving care – paid staff and family carers – friends, campaign groups, self-advocacy groups and fellow organisations – on what adult social care does and why this vital service needs to be properly funded.
A ‘postcard’ can be submitted at www.postcardsfromtheedges.org.uk and use #TellPhil on Twitter to say why social care needs to be properly funded.
