Local Election Campaign
Join End Social Care Disgrace’s Election campaign! Shout out for social care in the local and national elections!
Disabled and older residents face the collapse of already inadequate Social Care support as well as the rising cost of living.
This is not right, not safe, not fair !
LOCAL ELECTIONS MAY 2ND
Local Authorities can help to End this Social Care Disgrace. Your vote can make a difference!
You can find your local candidate here: Who Can I Vote For?
The letter asks councillors to:
- Insist on assessing what support people really need rather than assessing what the LA can afford and passing that off as meeting need. Recognising unmet need is a small step towards being part of the solution not part of the problem
- Support raising the Minimum Income Guarantee at least in line with inflation to help stop escalating charges hoovering up people’s disability benefits and stop pursuing charging arrears that people are unable to pay
- Seek to democratise decision making processes and provide support to enable disabled people, carers, workers and local communities to join in genuinely co-designing and producing services and involve them on Scrutiny Boards. This means going beyond focus groups, personal stories and consultation exercises to genuinely share power and responsibility
- Ensure that all directly employed staff are paid at least the living wage and make this a contractual requirement for all providers – and monitor compliance! (Salford Council is ahead of the field here) Ensure that all staff are entitled to sick pay, payment for travel time and sleep overs, training and trade union representation. Call out the additional exploitation of workers from overseas.
- Provide much needed practical and financial support to unpaid carers and value their expertise
- Look at non- profit options for taking over services as private companies surrender contracts i.e. bring them in house or commission third sector providers (Islington ahead here)
- Develop plans for free home care. (Hammersmith and Fulham have been providing free home care since 2014 and Hackney is getting there)
- Insist our Council joins with others across the country to put huge pressure on government to fund Local Authorities to provide decent care and support and be transparent with local people – don’t spin cuts as cost efficiencies! An informed public is a potential partner in pressurising national government
Here are some other campaign resources. Please use them freely:
- Questions you can ask of your councillors in hustings
- A summary of the ESCAD vision for transforming social care nationally.
- A postcard that can be used by local campaigns. For postcards to be sent to you, please contact Gilda Peterson [email protected]
- An ESCaD motion that you can use in your Trade Union or Labour party branch
- A letter that you can send to your local councillors
- Please use the following social media handles: @EndSCDisgrace #shout4socialcare
- Here are some brief social media texts you can use:
– Councils can make a difference! They can reduce care charges and help disabled people and others manage the cost-of-living crisis. Join our campaign www.endsocialcaredisgrace.org – Councils – take the pressure off disabled people and others by reducing care charges! See how here and join our campaign www.endsocialcaredisgrace.org
– Tens of thousands of sick and disabled people are being driven into debt over charges imposed by Local Authorities for the care and support they need to stay in their homes. Join our campaign supporting councils in reducing care charging www.endsocialcaredisgrace.org
– Councils make a difference! At the council elections, candidates must guarantee care and support workers a living wage and support the national call for £15/hr Local Election Campaign | End Social Care Disgrace
– Councillor candidates at the council elections, commit to providing better financial and wellbeing support to family carers, including respite services Local Election Campaign | End Social Care Disgrace
– Councils make a difference! Commit to democratically designing and delivering services ‘not for profit’ in equal partnership with disabled people’s organisations Local Election Campaign | End Social Care Disgrace - Here are the websites of other organisations with whom we are working. You will find other useful resources there:
Scrap social care charging – Inclusion London
WinVisible – women with visible and invisible disabilities (wordpress.com) Home – DPAC