1- After a busy day yesterday (real life meeting that exhausted me) I have now had a bit of time to look at the gov’s announcements for #SocialCare & the media coverage. I am not an economics expert but here are a few of my initial thoughts:
2- I was so disappointed that this was tied up with NHS funding & social care presented as a way to reduce workload on the NHS. Nothing about people’s QoL, being able to be an active citizen, or being able to have #AnEqualLife.
3- Of all the experts I saw on the TV or radio, no-one was speaking as an expert with lived experience. Why in social care are journalists not able to get authentic voices on, not just to tell their story, but to offer their opinions & solutions?
4- We also saw funding focused on not losing your savings or home in later life, but nothing about what we are funding and why. Words like quality were used but mean nothing in reality to those of use living social care everyday, we have heard it all before.
5- It's wrong to blame co-vid, social care funding has been in sharp decline for over a decade & ignored. The IFS ifs.org.uk/publications/1… suggests that this increase, which comes only after the NHS have (hopefully) dealt with the backlog, won’t even bring us back to 2010 levels.
6- And much of the detail for LA’s budgets has been delayed to the CSR. As has the long awaited white paper. There was talk about this being developed with people who draw on social care, that MUST happen. Otherwise it will fail.
7- What about those this doesn’t help? Disabled adults who may have no savings, will still have to use much of their disability benefits to pay for care. People who don’t yet qualify for care so get nothing & deteriorate quicker. Unpaid family carers struggling with no support.
8- This may sound a bit gloomy but what it showed me yesterday is the need for @socfuture & others to keep shouting that this is not about beds & caps, but people being able to lead ordinary lives the way they would like, and we all have a part to play in that. 
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