Labour must introduce a National Independent Living Service for disabled people

There are a number of reasons I will not support the call for a new Health and Wellbeing department; or indeed any service that tries to inextricably link independent living to healthcare. My greatest concern is that by tying social care to the NHS risks the medicalising of disability, or even over-medicalising some health conditions.

Social care (or as preferred by many Independent Living) and continuing healthcare often serve different purposes. Most people receiving social care packages do not have any medical or medicalised interventions within their support or care plans. 

My medical needs are met by my GP, practice nurses and the NHS generally. At no point (for the moment) do I need specialised care or support outside the usual, illnesses, etc. While I look to PAs and support workers to assist me with personal care, shopping, laundry, and in the workplace. 

The Needs Assessment itself does not need to be overly medical in its nature for many disabled people. Social workers and care managers aren’t healthcare workers, though many of them now fancy themselves as accountants or bank managers for the council. 

In my home borough of the 600+ recipients of social care who use direct payments only around 30 have continuing healthcare funding. This equates to around 5% of service users. Naturally, this figure is somewhat skewed given the difficulties faced when trying to secure continuing healthcare funding. Yet the people needing medical type interventions in their overall care would still be far fewer than those whose needs are predicated around living independently.

Many of those who argue for SC to be an integral part of the NHS do so on the basis that all care meted out via the NHS is free, while current social care packages can attract quite substantial personal contributions – or as we see it, a tax on disability. 

There are many within the movement who have a vision of a stand-alone National Independent Living Service; a service that would work closely with the NHS, social services, and all relevant bodies; a service free of charge at the point of need; a service funded nationally.

In my view, we should be pressing a Labour government to set up a National Independent Living Service state-run and funded.