Nick Morris (Policy & Campaigns Officer)
Ty Penderyn, 26 High Street
Merthyr Tydfil CF47 8DP
Email: nick.morris@sense.org.uk
Voice/text: 0845 127 0090/0092
A Sense Cymru Assembly briefing: Social Services & Wellbeing Bill – Stage 1
About Sense
Sense is a national charity that supports and campaigns for children and adults who are
deafblind. We provide tailored support, advice and information as well as specialist services to
all deafblind people, their families, carers and the professionals who work with them. In
addition, we support people who have a single sensory impairment with additional needs.
About deafblindness
Deafblindness is a combination of both sight and hearing difficulties. Most of what we learn
about the world comes through our ears and eyes, so deafblind people can often face
problems with communication, access to information and mobility.
Key points
 Deafblind people should be assessed by a suitably qualified professional and Sense
Cymru will want to ensure this requirement is in regulations.
 Sense Cymru calls on the Welsh Government to issue a formal timetable that shows
when the eligibility framework will be delivered.
 The Bill needs changes to promote individuals’ voice and control in the social care and
support services they use.
 Registers are a valuable and recognised tool for referring blind, partially sighted and
deafblind people to local social services. The Bill should ensure that local authority
identification of people with sensory loss is linked to existing registers.
Sense Cymru comments on the Bill’s general principles
Sense Cymru believes there is much to welcome in the Bill, including the single duties to
assess needs and meet eligible ones, the rounded definition of well-being and greater rights
for carers. However, a number of areas need to be clarified or amended if the Bill is to serve
the needs of deafblind people.
The current Deafblind Guidance, issued by the Welsh Government in 2001,1 sets out important
statutory rights for deafblind adults and children, including contact from their local authority,
access to specialist assessments and one-to-one support. We would like to see these
entitlements taken forward into the new system on a statutory basis.
1
National Assembly for Wales Circular No.10/01, 31 August 2001
1
1) Access to services – assessment and eligibility
 Sense Cymru welcomes the duty to assess where care and support needs appear to be
present and the duty to provide for eligible needs. However, the eligibility framework
that will determine if needs are eligible is yet to be published, so we feel unable to
comment on whether the new system will work for deafblind people.
 Sense Cymru continues to believe that assessments with people who may have needs
relating to deafblindness should be assessed by a suitably qualified professional and
will want to ensure this requirement is in regulations.
 The Bill and Explanatory Memorandum both appear to be missing statements that say
what will happen to existing duties in law, e.g. duty to assess for needs in the
Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970.
2) Voice and control
 Sense Cymru supports efforts to make the social care and support system personcentred and based on outcomes rather than services.
 A number of measures in the draft Bill still fall short of the Welsh Government’s
aspirations: e.g. there is no assumption in the Bill that the individual is usually the best
judge of their own well-being; care and support planning does not require any input from
the individual concerned; and there is no provision on the face of the Bill for direct
payments to be transparent.
3) Prevention and reablement
 Deafblind people across Wales access tailored services that reduce their need for more
intensive support. For example, communicator-guides can give deafblind people just a
few hours of support to help with mobility, accessing information and communicating.
 The Bill currently defines prevention in relation to reducing people’s need for social care
and support services. Given the Welsh Government’s outcomes focus we would
recommend prevention should instead be defined in relation to avoiding poor outcomes
or promoting positive outcomes.
4) Registers of sensory loss and disability
 The Bill will require local authorities to maintain a register of people who are ‘blind, deaf
or both blind and deaf’.
 Sense Cymru believes these registers should be linked to existing registers. The
definition of deafblindness should be made clearer to include people with combined
sight and hearing difficulties that affect their daily life and not only people who are
medically registerable separately as blind and deaf. There should also be a requirement
for local authorities to keep contact with people on the registers.
2