North Wales MS Mark Isherwood has told the First Minister today that people feel “ignored and disempowered” because they are not given crucial information about how to challenge adult social care decisions.
Speaking in this afternoon’s meeting of the Welsh Parliament, Mr Isherwood questioned the First Minister over the guidance provided to local authorities on social care decision making and highlighted problems residents in North Wales are experiencing if they wish to challenge a decision.
He said:
“The findings of the recent Equality and Human Rights Commission's Report 'Challenging adult social care decisions in England and Wales' include: ‘local authorities make daily decisions about people's access to social care’ and ‘people have a right to challenge them’, but ‘people are not given crucial information about how to challenge decisions; they fear that if they challenge decisions, they will face negative consequences and lose access to care’, and that, ‘as a result, the system is failing those who need it. People are deterred from seeking help and feel ignored and disempowered. Some people are in crisis and desperate for help’. This is certainly reflected in my own constituent casework, particularly in certain Counties.
“How will you therefore respond to the Report's recommendation that ‘the Welsh Government work with local authorities and others to improve the collection and analysis of equality data from social care users, including those who challenge decisions?’. They state ‘This data should be used to identify and address poor outcomes where they are experienced by people who share particular protected characteristics’.”
The First Minister agreed with Mr Isherwood that “People who feel they’ve not received the service to which they were entitled, they have a right to challenge those decisions and the way in which they do so ought to be properly reflected in data capture, and where improvements need to be made, the voice of the user ought to be influential in those decisions”.