7. What guidance does the Welsh Government provide to local authorities on social care decision making? OQ59336

I thank the Member for that, Llywydd. Under the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, the Welsh Government provides local authorities with guidance in the form of codes of practice and statutory guidance. Topics covered include autism services, prevention, assessment, eligibility and care planning, charging and financial assessment, children who are looked after, safeguarding and partnership working.

Thank you. The findings of the recent Equality and Human Rights Commission's report 'Challenging adult social care decisions in England and Wales' include: local authorities make daily decisions about people's access to social care and people have a right to challenge them, but people are not given crucial information about how to challenge decisions. They fear that if they challenge decisions, they will face negative consequences and lose access to care, and that, as a result, the system is failing those who need it. People are deterred from seeking help and feel ignored and disempowered. Some people are in crisis and desperate for help.

This is certainly reflected in my own constituent casework, particularly in certain counties. How will you therefore respond to the report's recommendation that the Welsh Government work with local authorities and others to improve the collection and analysis of equality data from social care users, including those who challenge decisions? They state this data should be

'used to identify and address poor outcomes' where they're experienced by people who share particular protected characteristics.

I certainly agree that people who feel that decisions made in relation to their own care ought to have the right to challenge that decision, and that right of challenge ought to be available to them in a way that is real, that's accessible, and where they feel that their voice has been properly heard. So, in taking forward any recommendation, one of the ways in which we will want to make sure that here in Wales we improve the system is to make sure that the voice of the user is at the heart of any data collection or any improvement in that system in the future.

Under the terms of the guidance that the Welsh Government has provided, Part 10 of the social services and well-being Act—the advocacy section of the Act—means that a code of practice has been provided to local authorities, and the purpose of advocacy is to make sure that those people who feel that their own voice has not been heard fully in the way that services have been provided, that that voice can be supported and amplified, and the active offer of advocacy to children and young people is a particular feature of the way in which that service is provided here in Wales.

But I agree with the basic point that the Member made. People who feel they’ve not received the service to which they were entitled, they have a right to challenge those decisions and the way in which they do so ought to be properly reflected in data capture, and where improvements need to be made, the voice of the user ought to be influential in those decisions.

Finally, question 8, Darren Millar.