Shaping the Future

Warrington Disability Partnership held a ‘Shaping the Future’ event in conjunction with Warrington LINks last week and attendance was high!

The event held at Monks Club, Warrington was a great success, speakers included Dave Thompson, MBE DL from Warrington Disability Partnership and Hilary Mercer of Warrington Borough Council with a presentation on ‘The Big Care Debate’ being given by Eileen Fitzgerald of Warrington LINks.
The Government has published ‘Shaping the Future of Care Together’ Green Paper on the reform of the adult care and support system in England. The paper sets out the vision to build a National Care Service that is fair, simple and affordable for all adults in England. It sets out the options for service reform, and how the new system could be organised and paid for.
Dave Thompson of Warrington Disability Partnership said “The huge attendance at the event underlined how important this issue is and the concerns that have been raised by the content of the proposals. Alongside

disabled people, carers and older people, attendees also included representatives from the voluntary sector including the Carers Centre, Older Persons Engagement Group, Mencap, MS Society, Disability Partnership, local Mental Health and Cancer support groups.”
He also said “It is plain to see that the current funding levels are sufficient to meet every ones needs and it is predicted that the current number of older and disabled people will rise sharply during the next 20 years. Everyone agrees that something needs to be done urgently to reduce the risk of local providers being faced with restricting the current level of care and support provided to very vulnerable people.”
The government has proposed various options to pay for future social care including the introduction of insurance policies, to setting levels of payments that everyone would be asked to contribute. They have identified that certain none means tested welfare benefits could be redirected to local social services in an attempt to support the budgets, but everyone who attended the event raised the point that the government had not suggested raising the extra funds via increased taxes or National Insurance contributions.
Attendees also highlighted that many older and disabled people already pay for the care they receive, so why are the government targeting them again.
The event was hailed as a huge success by everyone that attended. Warrington LINk’s are currently collating all of the responses that will be sent to the government on behalf of the attendees.
If you missed the opportunity to attend the meeting, please contact Warrington Disability Partnership or Warrington LINks to receive a consultation pack.