Social care law sets out who is eligible for support and who is not. At the moment England and Wales have a similar system based on assessing people’s needs in four bands – critical, substantial, moderate and low. Each local authority can decide which bands it will fund and most fund only critical and substantial.

This means that a person whose needs are assessed as moderate may find they are entitled to a service in one area but not in another. In both England and Wales this may change, so that the eligibility threshold would be the same in every authority. Sense would support this.

If a person’s needs are assessed as below the eligibility threshold they will get no support from social services and will have to buy it themselves, rely on friends and family, or manage without support. For this reason Sense believes that people with moderate needs should be eligible for support. This could save money in the long term, since not meeting people’s needs often means they develop higher needs or health problems which can be more expensive to meet.

Eligibility and deafblindness

What is very important for deafblind people is what type of need the eligibility framework takes into account. When they think about social care, many people think only of personal care – things like washing, eating and toileting.

Most deafblind people don’t need support with these activities. Their needs relate to mobility, communication and access to information.

The current eligibility framework looks at needs in a number of areas, including involvement in family and community life. These areas are seen as being as important as personal care or health and safety. Whatever the new eligibility framework covers, it must cover needs which are wider than just personal care. It should enable everyone to have a social network, employment, education or volunteering, a family life and a healthy lifestyle.

The Law Commission report is clear that social care is wider than just personal care. They recommend that there should be a list of outcomes which includes:

• Health and emotional well-being
• Protection from harm
• Education, training and recreation
• The contribution made to society
• Securing rights and entitlements.

Sense would support this, particularly the recognition of the importance of people being able to contribute to society and not simply to be safe from harm.

The Proposals in England

The draft Bill has a wide definition of social care as being to support well being. Well being is defined as including all the aspects recommended by the Law Commission and listed above.

A new system of eligibility will be developed, and Sense will want to be involved in this to ensure that it is relevant for deafblind people.