Steve Winyard, RNIB Head of Campaigns and Policy says: "RNIB is delighted with the outcomes of the Law Commission review on adult social care, which means the registers for blind and partially sighted people will be retained. The registers aren't just a piece of paper: for the one hundred people who lose their sight everyday they offer a vital lifeline. This helps them to be recognised by local authorities and receive the care and support they need to remain independent. The Commission set out a large number of recommendations and we welcome efforts to modernise care assessments and the rules governing entitlement to care."
Notes to Editors:
The Law Commission is the statutory independent body created by the Law Commissions Act 1965 to keep the law under review and to recommend reform where it is needed. The aim of the Commission is to ensure that the law is fair; modern; simple, and as cost-effective as possible. Its adult social care project is concerned with reviewing the law relating to the provision of adult social care in England and Wales.
The Law Commission's final report on reform of adult social care law was published on 11th May 2011. The Government has announced that it intends to "bring together the conclusions of the Law Commission and the Commission on funding of long-term care" into a White Paper in 2011. The Government has also said it would introduce legislation in the second session of this Parliament to establish a sustainable legal and financial framework for adult social care.
RNIB is a leading organisation in the implementation of the UK Vision Strategy, endorsed by all UK governments in response to a World Health Assembly resolution calling on all governments to eliminate unavoidable sight loss and improve services for those whose sight cannot be saved. Amongst other things, the UK Vision Strategy calls for "an environment where all UK citizens…receive timely and appropriate services" and in which those services "create seamless pathways through health, social care and the voluntary sector."