Public consultation begins on Welsh care legislation

The Welsh Assembly has today launched a public consultation into the Social Services (Wales) Bill, which is designed to achieve ‘radical reform’ of how care provision is delivered and assessed.

Major points of debate raised by the Bill include the implementation of a national eligibility criteria, which may include ‘portable assessments’ that allow those receiving care to move to other regions while expecting the same services, while the legislation is also supporting a drive to make more services available via direct payments.

The Government also considers the modernisation of the social services complaints system to be crucial if service users are to feel the benefits of reform, taking its recommendations from the White Paper ‘Sustainable Social Service for Wales: A Framework for Action’, published June 2011.

The deputy minister for social services and children, Gwenda Thomas, decided to announce the consultation on a visit to the Dewis Centre for Independent Living, in Pontypridd, in order to show that achieving more flexible lifestyles for older and disabled people is central to the aims of the Bill.

Ms Thomas said: ‘We are not prepared to sit by as fewer and fewer people receive the support they need. The Bill will drive the development of new models of service that maintain and improve the well-being of people in need.

‘There will be a stronger focus through the Bill on preventative and early intervention services, based on greater partnership working and integration of services between local authorities and partners.

‘Service users and their carers must be involved. This means assessments must be about the outcomes that are important to them, not just about eligibility for a particular service.’

Three March events have been organised to enable care professionals and service users to discuss the proposals: in Cardiff on the 22nd, Llanelli on the 27th and in Llandudno on the 29th.

Image: © Crown copyright (2011) Visit Wales