I welcome Gordon Lishman’s article on Social Care and the Triple Lock.

One of the issues though that many people overlook when it comes to Social Care is how to help those disabled people who are fit and healthy and need Personal Care as a wider package of support to enable them to lead an independent life.

These are disabled people who need Personal Care as a means to an end but need so much more besides. Being taken to work, for example, and the administrative support at work in order to succeed. Support as a Council or Parliamentary Candidate to assist with their duties in a key seat, thereby enabling them to win it, before providing the necessary support to assist with their duties as a Councillor or MP. Or finally, being taken out in their Motability Vehicle to socialise with friends and family or in pursuit of a hobby like attending Choir Practice once a week.

I am talking here about Personal Assistance, which must be seen as a form of Social Care that enables a disabled person to thrive, not just survive.

Funding it is not going to be easy because so much is involved. One option though could involve merging Direct Payments, Access to Work and Disabled Student Allowance into a Personal Assistance Fund that no longer demarcates for Support at Home, Support at Work or Support with Study, but instead provides the funds needed to employ a team of Personal Assistants to help the disabled person with whatever they need help with, wherever they need it, and whenever they need it.

Personal Independence Payments (PIP) could be restructured so it is a Disability Benefit based around a disabled person’s need, not ability, with the explicit intent of enabling them to live independent lives.

Just a thought, but I think Social Care needs to be thought of as much in these terms as traditional forms of Social Care that mainly help very severely disabled and elderly people in their own home.

* Richard Whelan is an Executive Member of Oxford East Liberal Democrats and a Member of the Liberal Democrat Disability Association.