Social Services and Housing

The Welsh Government will be introducing a new social services bill and a new housing bill during the next five years

These will “sweep away all existing legislation”. We will see opportunities to improve the framework for social care and housing, although we will also need to ensure that important rights for people with disabilities and vulnerable people needing care are respected. A major part of the social services bill will be the development of reablement services. The white paper Sustainable Social Services: A Framework for Action identified OTs as having a ‘key role in reablement services' (p21). We will need to lobby to ensure that we continue to contribute to social care services.

What is COT doing about Social Services and Housing?

• Member of the Welsh Reablement Alliance which lobbies to ensure the availability of consistent and effective reablement services around Wales
• The Wales Policy Officer is meeting senior government officials and civil servants to promote and explain the roles of OT in reablement as well as universal social services
• Meeting the Social Services Improvement Agency, Welsh Local Government Association and Care Council for Wales to continue to promote the vital contribution of occupational therapy in social services and discuss the need for OTs to be an integral part of the social care workforce
• Meeting and providing briefings to Assembly Members and the Assembly Research Service on the evidence of the occupational therapy contribution
• Working with other professional bodies and third sector agencies to monitor the drafting of the new bills to ensure basic rights are protected, for example, the right to adaptations

What can you do about Social Services and Housing?

• Promote and articulate the benefit of occupational therapy to all service users and their families, to all colleagues and managers and to other stakeholders whenever possible
• Demonstrate evidence based and best practice at all times to show the outcomes of effective occupational therapy
• Monitor developments and changes in your own organisation and take any opportunity to lobby, using the resources available on the COT website