Consultation Response

The National Assembly for Wales (Legislative Competence) (No.4) Order 2008

Response to the Proposal for a Legislative Competence Order relating to charging for Non-Residential Social Care (Domiciliary Care)

Introduction

Carers Wales is the voice of carers and is part of Carers UK.

Carers provide unpaid care by looking after an ill, frail or disabled family member, friend or partner. Carers give so much to society yet as a consequence of caring, they experience ill health, poverty and discrimination.

Carers Wales and UK is an organisation of carers fighting to end this injustice. We will not stop until people recognise the true value of carers’ contribution to society and carers get the practical, financial and emotional support they need.

We work to improve the lives of the 356,000 carers in Wales and particularly the 90,000 carers who look after someone for 50+ hours a week(1).

We are active members of the Coalition on Charging Cymru (COCC) and endorse and draw on key points from their collective response.

Carers Wales’ response covers three areas:

• Overall response to WAG seeking a legislative competence order (LCO)
• LCO Remit
• LCO Definitions

Overall response to WAG seeking a legislative competence order

Carers Wales believes it is both important and appropriate for WAG to seek powers to address charging for non-residential care.  We hope that in seeking a LCO, WAG will address issues of equality and social justice for disabled people and their carers.

Charging is a significant issue to carers and the thousands of people across Wales who receive services through a community care assessment. It is also an important issue for the many carers and service users who are deterred from taking up services.

Carers Wales believes that charging should be abolished for community care but recognise that, currently, there is not the necessary political support for this. However the debate on how society pays for high quality community care services and establishing the right balance between the role of the state and the individual in paying for long term care is currently very high on the political agenda in both social services and health. Resolving this issue is fundamental if we wish to create a society in Wales where disabled and frail older people, and their unpaid carers, are accorded full equality and their human rights are protected.

The provision of essential services to support people to live independently and in the community should be based on need and not on the ability of the individual or of their family to pay or on where they live. Carers Wales believes that the provision of statutory community care services and any associated charging regime, must stop exploiting primary carers and other family members. Carers who, unpaid, provide the bulk of care, are often asked to pay for alternative care services when they themselves need time off or want to maintain or regain a life of their own. We believe this is unjust.  Carers should not be charged for the services that are provided under carers’ legislation and that are designed to enable them to sustain their caring role (2). We also feel it is wrong that carers are asked to contribute to the cost of services provided to the people they support. Charges should be based solely on the income of the person with the community care needs.

Charging is currently unfair to both service users and carers. It acts as a deterrent and stops many families from taking up services that they have been assessed as needing.(3)

WAG can improve matters under the powers that WAG currently holds and Carers Wales and COCC urges them to do so while this legislative process is underway. These matters include not charging against Occupational Pensions or taking spouses’ income into account, not charging Direct Payments at source and raising the savings threshold.

LCO Remit

Carers Wales calls for the remit of the LCO to be as wide as possible so that it is inclusive of the range of needs among those assessed as requiring community care as well as the range of non-residential services offered to support such individuals and carers. Services to people with learning difficulties for example tend to differ in nature from those for people with physical or sensory impairments. Furthermore the remit should be anticipatory of new arrangements to meet needs such as individualised or personalised budgets.

LCO Definitions

Carers Wales urges that terminology used should be capable of broad agreement as to definition. Attempting to define 'disabled person’, 'home care’ and even 'free’ in the Task and Finish Group established to advise the Minister on the Manifesto Pledge was a salutary experience concerning the pitfalls of inappropriately worded commitments.

For this reason Carers Wales raises concerns about the following:

• Carers Wales notes that in the LCO the term used is 'social care’. The primary legislation relevant to charging relates to community care and it is essential to establish whether "social care” is synonymous with 'community care’ and subject to the same legal framework. Will the proposed LCO apply to all services provided by a Community Care Assessment and does it link back to the primary legislation upon which such assessments rest?
• Carer Wales questions the use of 'particular’, i.e. "in respect of individuals with particular needs relating to their well being”. How will 'particular’ be defined in this context? Will it result in the exclusion of current groupings of service users, whether by design or as an unintended consequence. The primary legislation relates to "assessed” needs and we feel this may be a more appropriate terminology as it builds on existing law and statutory guidance.

Conclusion

Carers Wales trusts that, as stated by the Deputy Minister for Social Services in the Plenary Debate on 28 November 2007, the LCO is framed widely enough to result in nil charges thus facilitating the end of one of the most flawed systems in the Welfare State whereby those with the highest need and lowest incomes pay twice for vital support and the current unseemly battles between health and social services funded support can end.

Roz Williamson
Director, Carers Wales
22^nd January 2008

(1) Census 2001

(2) Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000; Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004 and related guidance.

(3)Carer Assessment Survey 2004 - Wales Carers Alliance

NB: Carers Wales is a member of the Coalition on Charging Cymru (COCC) and gratefully acknowledges the use of some salient points from the Coalition’s response.