Equality and Human Rights Commission

On 20 November the Commission submitted its formal response to the Department of Health consultation - 'Shaping the Future of Care Together - Adult Social Care Green Paper', which ran from July to November 2009.

Introduction

The Commission welcomes the opportunity to respond to this important consultation on the future of the adult social care system. Care and support is at the heart of our mission of:

• human rights, because care and support is about protecting and promoting our basic freedoms;
• equality, because care and support shapes the opportunities of individuals and their families to lead the lives they wish to lead and because people should be able to access care and support without experiencing unlawful discrimination; and
• good relations, because the right care and support services help us to be the good families and good communities that we want to be and because in our ageing society care and support will influence and be influenced by the quality of intergenerational relations.

The Commission congratulates the Government for moving the agenda forward. The current system is unsustainable and is already failing thousands of the most marginalised and excluded members of society. Some fundamentally hard decisions need to be made to achieve long-term solutions, and they can only be made through debate and consensus.

Download our response in full (Word).