The contents of tomorrow’s Queen’s Speech will tell us whetheror not social care is to get the urgent reform it needs. The fearis that it will not. I don’t usually blog on the same subject 2weeks in a row, but I’m making an exception in this case, becausethe issues at stake are so important. Last week I blogged on therumours that social care reform was to be delayed yet again. In theintervening 7 days, nothing has happened to suggest that theserumours were unfounded. In response to the growing concern aboutthis likelihood, the Care and Support Alliance – a group of 78charities, campaign groups and campaigners, including Mencap andthe National Autistic Society – wrote an open letter to Prime Minister David Cameroncalling on him to include a social care bill in the Queen’s Speech.If no bill included, it will put any legislation to reform socialcare back until the following parliamentary session. This means anylegislation will not become law before late 2013 at the earliest.It would also delay any funding decisions until after the nextcomprehensive spending review, which is set for autumn 2013.Without reform, the Alliance warns, “too many older and disabledpeople will be left in desperate circumstances: struggling onalone, living in misery and fear”. It is with this in mind that theAlliance makes its impassioned plea to the Prime Minister – who hasrepeatedly spoken of his support for social care reform – to tryand ensure that the bill goes in to the speech. It is hard to argueagainst anything in the Alliance’s letter. From what I’ve read andheard anecdotally, cutbacks to services have left many people withlearning disabilities with fewer services – if they’ve not had themcut completely in the past year. As a result, their lives arebecoming much more difficult. The Alliance is also right to saythat all sides – politicians, charities, providers, communitygroups etc – need to come together to find a solution. The systemis creaking and is in urgent need of reform. I really hope that thePrime Minister and the Government will heed this letter and ensurea social care bill is included in this parliamentary session. Butmy fear is that the decision has already been made, that it won’tbe. The rumours about a lack of progress on finding a solution tothe social care funding gap have failed to go away and this, Isuspect, is the major stumbling block to reform. If this is thecase, then many social care service users will remain living with,as the Alliance puts it; “the fear of what tomorrow mightbring.”
