Good Lives Manifesto Pledge Card – Candidate Responses

Tim Farron is the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Westmorland & Lonsdale constituency in the 2024 General Election.

https://www.libdems.org.uk/tim-farron

Dear Alison and James

Thank you very much for your recent email with regard to the Good Lives Manifesto and whether l would be prepared to sign the pledge contained in your email to ensure the need for an accessible election.

I am very happy to sign up to the pledge.  We need to reform social care drastically, so that those working in care are properly rewarded which will help us to recruit and retain the people we need . People with learning difficulties deserve to live active, supported, fulfilling lives with as much independence as possible and their loved ones deserve to have confidence that services for them will be of good quality for the whole of their lives.

In addition, people with learning difficulties deserve equality and dignity, being able to participate in our democracy by having access to information so that they can fully take advantage of their roles as equal citizens.

I am attaching part of our Manifesto which looks specifically at the care sector which may be of interest:

Care

In addition, we will:

• Provide truly personalised care that empowers individuals by:
  • Trialling personal health and social care budgets so that individuals are in control of what care they receive.
  • Rolling out digital platforms for care users to develop networks, relationships and opportunities, connecting with care workers, friends and family, voluntary groups and more.
  • Improving communication standards so carers can support care users to co-produce and monitor care plans.
  • Developing a digital strategy for tech-enabled lives.
  • Establishing an Independent Living Taskforce to help people live independently in their own homes, as set out in chapter 10.
• End the postcode lottery of service provision and provide national, high-quality care for everyone who needs it by:
  • Providing predictable, consistent funding for free personal care.
  • Increasing transparency and accountability as to how money is spent through local authorities.
  • Creating a National Care Agency to set national minimum standards of care.
  • Enabling individuals to transfer their care package so they don’t feel stuck in their current locality due to their care needs.
• Give unpaid carers a fair deal by:
  • Increasing Carer’s Allowance and expanding eligibility for it, as set out in chapter 10.
  • Introducing a statutory guarantee of regular respite breaks for unpaid carers.
  • Introducing paid carer’s leave, building on the entitlement to unpaid leave secured by the Liberal Democrats.
  • Making caring a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 and requiring employers to make reasonable adjustments to enable employees with caring responsibilities to provide that care.
  • Introducing a Young Carers Pupil Premium as part of an ‘Education Guarantee’ for young carers.
•  Make careers in social care more attractive and value experienced staff to improve retention by:
  • Creating a new Carer’s Minimum Wage, boosting the minimum wage for care workers by £2 an hour, as a starting point for improved pay across the sector.
  • Creating clear career pathways, linked to recommended pay scales, which put an end to the undervaluing of skills in the sector.
  • Creating a career ladder to allow flexibility to work across the NHS and social care, allowing staff to gain experience in both.
  • Creating a Royal College of Care Workers to represent this skilled workforce.
  • Expanding the NHS Digital Staff Passport to include the care sector.

• Recruit more staff to the sector with a social care workforce plan, akin to the NHS England workforce plan, that includes ethical international recruitment.
• Support people to age well by:
  • Establishing a Commissioner for Older People and Ageing.
  • Rolling out active ageing programmes and trips and falls assessments for everyone over the age of 75 to prevent falls, avoid unnecessary hospital admissions and promote healthy ageing.
  • Opening fracture liaison services so that osteoporosis patients can get the treatment they need and prevent long-term issues and costs.

• Support children in kinship care and their family carers by:
  • Introducing a statutory definition of kinship care.
  • Building on the existing pilot to develop a weekly allowance for all kinship carers.
• Make care experience a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 to strengthen the rights of people who are in or have been in care.
• Refresh the national strategy for loneliness collaboratively with service providers and people who have lived experience of loneliness, to be overseen by a dedicated Minister for Tackling Loneliness.”

With best wishes
Yours sincerely

TIM FARRON

I am no longer the MP as Parliament has been dissolved, but I am writing in my capacity as a candidate for the Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency. 

Pippa Smith is the Labour candidate for the Westmorland & Lonsdale constituency in the 2024 General Election.

https://www.southlakeslabour.org.uk/labour-candidates/2024/04/11/pippa-smith-labours-candidate-for-the-general-election/ 

Pippa agreed to support the Learning Disability England’s Good Lives Manifesto and Pledge Card and, rather than just sending her response, asked if she could come and meet us.

So on Thursday 27^th June, Pippa joined Alison, James and Fairoak Owls Michael and Lily in a ‘round table’ discussion about some of the points that matter to our tenants.

Pippa Smith: “I read the manifesto that was sent through and was made aware on a national level of the issues faced by people with learning disabilities but wanted to come to Fairoak and hear directly from the tenants about their experiences.”

James: “In your manifesto, you talk about a ‘national care service’: can you tell us how this would work in a small town like Kendal?”

Pippa: “That’s a great question. This is a campaign which is led by a number of trade unions; Unison in particular have been pushing this forward and saying that we need a universal access care service and reform to the social care sector. What’s in the [Labour] manifesto is a commitment to work out what this is going to look like and how it’s going to happen.”

“Whilst the details are still being worked on, this starts with minimum standards – these are the minimum standard of what good care looks like everywhere. Regardless of where you live, we want there to be equal access to quality care for everyone across the country.”

James: “How are you making this General Election accessible for people with additional needs?”

Pippa: “We’ve got different formats of the [Labour] manifesto including Easy Read and braille versions. It’s important that we get our message out to people in more accessible ways.”

“I’m interested to know if there are any other barriers that you find in engaging and participating in democracy in general? There are things that we can’t do as a political party, but there are things we could do if we are in power as the Government as part of the electoral system.”

Michael: “Should carers be paid more for what they do?”

Pippa: “Yes! What we [Labour] will do if we get elected into Government is to link the minimum wage, which a lot of carers are on, to the actual cost of living. We’ll task the independent pay commission to work out what the minimum wage should actually be, so that it is genuinely a wage that you can live on. Carers do a magnificent job and should be properly paid.”

Lily: “We’ve had a very bad cost of living crisis – if Labour were to win and get into power, how would they address this?”

Pippa: “A big driver of the cost of living crisis has been energy bills as we have no control over what we pay for our energy as we buy it on an international market, and that’s gone through the roof as a result of the war in Ukraine.”

“What we are going to do is invest in renewable energy and create a publicly-owned energy company, called Great British Energy, which is going to invest in solar and wind energy which will also create a lot of jobs to make and install things like wind turbines. This will also help bring down our energy bills here in the UK.”

Finally, it was time for a question from Pippa to the Fairoak Owls: “What is the biggest thing that you think will make a difference?”

“We would like our voices to be heard, definitely. People sometimes see the learning disability first and then just brush us off; they don’t see someone who is capable of living independently.”

James Townley is the Reform UK candidate for the Westmorland & Lonsdale constituency in the 2024 General Election.

https://www.reformparty.uk/westmorland-and-lonsdale-constituency

Phil Clayton is the Green Party candidate for the Westmorland & Lonsdale constituency in the 2024 General Election.

https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/person/116732/

Wendy Long is the Social Democratic Party candidate for the Westmorland & Lonsdale constituency in the 2024 General Election.

SDP General Election Candidates