Minister seeks to quell cuts fears

Cathy Reay with the Lib Dems in Liverpool
 
Paul Burstow MP, minister for care services, tried to reassure disabled delegates that social care would improve under the party’s power, not suffer.

Speaking at a fringe event in Liverpool Mr Burstow said that by the end of their five-year term he is certain that the Liberal Democrat party will reform social care “to a point where we won’t talk about it anymore as a problem”.

One key development Mr Burstow was keen to pursue, he said, was personalisation of services at a local level. “I want to see personalisation as a key way of disabled people taking back control over their lives.”

However, he conceded, a lot of work does need to be done to ensure the local authorities step up to the mark and provide adequate services for their regions.
“Some local authorities spend 30% of their budget on adult social care while others spend 70%. We need to find a way to manage this so that every local authority is spending the what is needed,” Mr Burstow added.

In response to a question from the floor about how the government can ensure local authorities take on responsibility for disabled people in an efficient manner, he said: “I want to see competitive localism across regions; I want to see local authority departments competing with each other on providing better services and I think that will happen.”
One problem highlighted by a delegate is the issue of direct payments and individualised budgets. Mr Burstow responded by saying that the government is currently trialling different direct payment methods with disabled people so that they can “shape services around their needs rather than those of the provider”.

Almost two years of this trialling has taken place, however, and still no results have surfaced.

Mr Burstow said one of the current big problems in care is the speedy discharge of patients from hospitals during their time of recovery. “It’s important we don’t lose our sight of agenda with wellbeing, and this is something addressed in our white paper.”

·      The Government’s white paper, Liberating the NHS: increasing democratic legitimacy in health, published 22 July 2010, is available here: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Consultations/Liveconsultations/DH_117586