10 - Care, Disability and Gender Equality in English Care and Support Policy

Summary

This chapter examines how the English Care Act deals with care, support, paid work and disability, particularly how it addresses the tension between supporting women’s unpaid care and their paid work participation and the tension between supporting carers’ claims and supporting disability rights claims. In light of its apparent support for multiple activities and multiple constituencies, a purpose of this second case study analysis was to explore opportunities to build on elements of the policy that align, or at least partly align, with the rights-based approach proposed in this book. The analysis in this chapter indicates that the policy has positive features but is far from a panacea. It applies only to adults, and only a small subset of care and support users and carers with the greatest level of need can access financial support. While the reforms purported to enhance individuals’ self-determination and choice in a manner consistent with disability rights claims, they were also consistent with neoliberal goals of shifting responsibility from the state onto individuals and the market. In the wider context of austerity-related reductions in local authorities’ resources, the policy can make only a modest contribution to the realization of care and support rights.