Thanks to brilliant campaigning by Bristol Reclaim Independent Living (BRIL) and a powerful alliance of supporters across the country, Bristol City Council have announced that they have withdrawn their proposed ‘Fair and Affordable Care.’ The council has said that it will now explore, in co-production with people who draw on social care, other ways to meet their statutory obligations to protect people’s right to independent living and to promote wellbeing within constrained budgets.
As BRIL are keen to point out, this is not the end of the story in Bristol. Their campaign has spotlighted the potentially unlawful policies and actions of other local councils and Integrated Care Systems as they strive to balance their budgets in response to under-investment and budget cuts by national government and the human (and human rights violating) impact this has.
Our submission to Bristol’s consultation set out why #SocialCareFuture opposed the policy and others like them.
