Disabled People’s Podcast calls for Radical Reform in Social Care in Glasgow

Today on the 75^th anniversary of the NHS and in the context of a new deal between Scottish Government and Local Government, Glasgow Disability Alliance launches the first in a 3 episode series ‘Care About Us’: A podcast made by disabled people about the social care system and how it needs to change.

Now more than ever, we need the Scottish Government and Local Authorities to start prioritising disabled people, embed equalities in their approach and listen to us as a community of identity.

You can listen to the first of three episodes now here: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/care-about-us

GDA Member, Paula: “It’s a nightmare really. I wish I didn’t have to have carers, but I don’t have a choice. It’s degrading. Completely degrading”.

GDA Member, Luke: “The media, the public, they all think of us as a burden.”

In the new podcast series, GDA members and activists in Glasgow tell us what social care means to them, what the main issues are in social care and how it needs to change.

With £21 million cut to social care support in Glasgow in March, a delayed National Care Service Bill and a new agreement between Local Authorities and Scottish Government threatening ring-fenced, protected funding for social care, disabled people cannot be ignored anymore.

In the current social care system, disabled people are facing: rising care charges, slashed care packages, inhumane and often cruel treatment and a system that is unable to uphold basic human rights.

The social care system in its current form is too broken and fragile to meet the real needs of disabled people in Scotland.

GDA Member, Rosie: “Change is on the horizon in Scotland and disabled people are calling for national reform to overhaul the broken social care system”.

Dr Richard Brunner, University of Glasgow “It’s all very well saying  people need to get out of bed and eat, but it’s a question of what you want to get out of bed for and having something meaningful to do with your day”.

GDA Members are urgently calling on the Scottish Government and Local Authorities to overhaul the current social care system to meet need and uphold disabled people’s human rights by:

·       Improve resources for social care – including better wages, training and opportunities for care staff

·       Scrap all care charges

·       Re-open the ILF

·       Overhaul eligibility criteria to focus on need, not the constraints of budgets

·       Produce and deliver national standards and accountability to improve the quality and consistency of care delivered locally: empower leaders and social work professionals to develop a new culture based on upholding human rights.

·       Provide flexible care that meets our needs and supports us to live the life we want to live

Tressa Burke, Chief Executive of GDA: “Disabled people have been deprioritised throughout the pandemic and now through post pandemic planning, despite dying in the highest numbers. The New Deal between the Scottish Government and Local Government and the potential removal of ring-fenced funding for social care is another nail in the coffin for disabled people’s life opportunities unless rapid actions are taken.

Increased investment for social care is urgently needed along with accountability and interventions when things go wrong: disabled people need protection and investment in social care that upholds our human rights”.

Angela Mullen, Chair of Glasgow Disability Alliance’s Board: “People are already not able to shower regularly, use the toilet or go to bed when they want.

“People’s basic needs must be met but we also want to have a social life, to have hobbies and be involved in our communities and actually live our lives”

GDA members are speaking out, sharing their lived experience of social care and amplifying their voices to call for the change needed to fix the broken care system.

The podcast is available to listen wherever you get your podcasts including Apple, Amazon, Google and Spotify below: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/care-about-us