Neither Labour nor Tories are going far enough for disabled people – we deserve better

“It is nothing new for our issues to be sidelined.” Speaking on the state of the party manifestos regarding social care, activist and author Ellen Clifford succinctly summarised how most disabled people across the country felt as party manifestos were unveiled.

“Given the terrible state of social care support in England, with chronic under-funding and a sector on the brink of collapse, the party manifestos are notably weak in this area,” Ellen explained. The social care crisis should be a national emergency, with its dangerous consequences putting at least 10 million disabled people of all ages and backgrounds at risk.

The statistics are stark and speak for themselves. In September 2022, the Care and Support Alliance estimated that 2.6 million people aged 50 and above were living with some unmet need for care in England, with the numbers only growing yearly. Kings Fund research has found that most younger adults’ requests for support do not translate into access to local authority-funded care. Around 35% of requests for support by younger adults result in no service provided (compared with around 25% for older people).

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With such a stark problem, cutting across age groups, you’d have thought politicians would rush to propose radical solutions. However, when they have been given a chance to propose answers in their manifestos, the major parties instead are risking “exacerbating” the situation by not planning to make a crucial change: ending social care charging. Ellen argues: “Disabled people’s […] quality of life has steadily deteriorated in line with social care cuts and social care charging rises over the past 14 years.”

“Many of the wider public believe social care in England is free, like the NHS. Historically, this has held back reform,” Ellen told me, as neither Labour nor the Conservative manifesto have written manifestos that would rebalance this dire situation by finally making social care free at the point of use. And Claire Glasman, disability rights campaigner and a founder member and co-ordinator of multi-racial grassroots organisation WinVisible (Women with Visible & Invisible Disabilities), agrees: “Labour and Tory alike pledge billions more for military spending and nuclear submarines, but don’t prioritise funding for independent living and support for mothers and children to keep families together in the community.”

At the end of the day, no matter who we are, we all want to live safely in our local community and be connected to our friends and family support networks, but our current system is massively failing in this regard – with the country’s largest union, Unison, warning that local authorities might not be able to offer disabled people the “legal minimum of care” as soon as next year. Clearly, significant investment and an end to care charging are needed for us to progress toward this system that allows us to flourish and live independently.

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As it stands, Labour’s overall plans remain nebulous, calling for all-party solutions and a National Care Service with little substance behind it. Meanwhile, the Conservative’s plans suggest they will do nothing for the poorest disabled older people and continue to leave disabled people of working age facing ever-increasing care charges.

Only the Greens and Lib Dems, two parties unlikely to form majorities according to current polling at least, are offering solutions that could put the country onto such a trajectory. “One thing that is welcome is how free personal care has been adopted as one of the LibDems’ key pledges,” Ellen explained, not that this would be a “magic bullet for fixing social care as Scotland has shown”.

There is a glimmer of hope that the Green Party seem to be the only party that understands the sheer scale of what is needed to fix the system. They are pledging £20bn of investment into social care, surpassing Disability Rights UK’s demands and other DPOs’ demands in our Disabled People’s Manifesto to establish a social care system that “sustains independence and wellbeing”.

But there are more policy answers available to politicians if they choose to finally listen to our community. In fact, disabled people from across the country have come together to create a practical roadmap for the social care system. It’s called the National Independent Living Service (NILS), and it would be a bold reimagining of how care and support for disabled people of all ages in England should be organised and delivered.

What makes NILS so different is that our model would be led by disabled people, becoming person-centred and empowering and enabling us to thrive rather than just survive.  

Unlike our current system, it would be underpinned by the principles of choice and control, nothing about us without us, and the right to independent living. We believe that NILS could recognise and address other forms of discrimination experienced by disabled people, including racism, ageism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia.

We hope politicians nationwide will be brave enough to step away from the current consensus that’s clear in party manifestos and adopt our plan wholesale. Nothing about us without us!

Mikey Erhardt is a campaigns and policy officer at Disability Rights UK.

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