Tweeting Disability Charities Speed-Debate At Party Conferences

Main Category: Multiple Sclerosis
Article Date: 23 Sep 2009 - 9:00 PDT

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Disability charities Leonard Cheshire Disability, Mencap and the MS Society are moving away from the traditional political party conference fringe event this year by organising a 'speed-debating' event on adult social care.

The charity trio are holding the innovative events, which will also incorporate Twitter, at the upcoming party conferences in a bid to seek cross-party views from MPs on social care reform.

Shadow Health Minister Greg Mulholland MP kicked off the series of debates at this week's Liberal Democrat Party Conference. Meanwhile, Minister for Social Care, Phil Hope MP will be involved in the interactive debate at the Labour Party Conference.

Leading policy influencers, Jamie Bartlett of Demos and Henry Featherstone of Policy Exchange will attend the Conservative Party conference.

The charities have organised a series of 10-minute break-out sessions encouraging participants to discuss the broad question 'how would you change social care for working age disabled people?'.

This is posed in light of the fact that the government did not clearly set out how services for people with a disability will be improved in the July social care green paper 'Shaping the Future of Care Together'.

Throughout the debate the charities will use social networking site Twitter to encourage live online debate, providing an opportunity for those not attending the conferences to make a contribution.

The feedback from the events will play a vital role in contributing to the individual charities' consultation responses to the green paper.

MS Society Head of Policy and Campaigns, Daniel Berry, said: "This is an opportunity for disabled people to talk directly with senior decision makers from all three parties about what they want to see from social care reforms.

"We need to show MPs and councillors how important social care is to the millions of people living with a disability and why the current and next government must make major reforms to the care system a top priority."

John Knight, Leonard Cheshire Disability Director of Policy and Campaigns, said: "Social care reform is urgently required. Disabled people around the country are not getting the care and support they need. These fringe events will give everyone a chance to have their voices heard by the people who will ultimately be deciding what happens to social care in the future."

David Congdon, Head of Campaigns and Policy at learning disability charity Mencap, whose team recently launched the social care campaign 'Don't cut us out', said: "People with a learning disability and their families and carers are having vital services cut which is having a devastating impact on their lives.

"We hope our engaging and interactive event will inspire real debate on how we can repair our faltering social care system, so people with a disability get the support they need to live full, independent and active lives."

Source
MS Society