The Equality and Human Rights Commission is currently undertaking an inquiry into how older and disabled adults and unpaid carers can challenge local council decisions about social care and support in England and Wales. As you know, local councils make a number of decisions that affect people’s access to social care and support. This includes whether they are entitled to care or support and, if so, how much and what kind of care or support they can access.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission want to understand people’s experiences of challenging, or trying to challenge, local council decisions about adult social care or support.
They want to know whether:
- The existing ways of challenging decisions are effective and accessible
- People are given enough information about their rights to care and support, and how they can challenge decisions
- People can access advocacy support to help them challenge decisions
- Local councils and other bodies learn from challenges to improve decision-making in future
- There are effective systems in place to check that decisions are made well the first time round.
As part of their evidence gathering, they have now begun to carry out interviews with key organisations across the sector, in both Wales and England. They would like to hear from professionals and organisations working with social care service users and unpaid carers to make sure they take full account their insights and experiences within our inquiry.
If you would like to take part in an interview or submit written evidence, please contact: SCI@equalityhumanrights.com. The Equality and Human Rights Commission are hoping to conclude their evidence gathering by the end of January 2022.
For more information about the inquiry please visit the inquiry webpage. You may also be interested in reading the inquiry terms of reference.
