Julian Huppert – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Huppert on 2014-06-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the availability of a range of housing and care options for people with physical disabilities and learning difficulties.
Norman Lamb
The Department has not made any assessment about the availability range of housing and care options for people with physical and learning disabilities.
A key aim of this Government is to put people with disabilities, including learning disabilities, and the families who care for them, in the driving seat with greater choice and control and able to contribute to and influence decisions which affect their lives, including over where and with whom they live.
The Care Act puts into law a series of reforms to care and support, making it a modern system which is built around people’s individual needs and goals, and which puts them in control of their own care and support. The Act will help to improve care and support for everyone who uses care and support services, by placing personal budgets onto a statutory footing as part of the care and support plan. These reforms will allow people to exercise real choice and control over the care and support they receive, and are supported by new duties around market shaping and information and advice, to ensure that people fully understand the care system and have a wide range of high quality services available in their local area to choose from.
Housing plays a critical role in helping adults with physical and learning disabilities to live as independently as possible. The Department is providing £315 million over five years for the Care and Support Specialised Housing fund. The fund is administered by the Homes and Communities Agency and, within London, by the Greater London Authority. The main aim of the fund is to support and accelerate the development of the specialised housing market for older people and disabled adults, which includes housing for adults who are physically disabled and those with learning difficulties.
