Responding to Baroness Casey's announcement at the LGA annual conference of a national public consultation on adult social care, Cllr Dr Wendy Taylor MBE, Chair of the Local Government Association’s Health and Wellbeing Committee, said:
"Local government is essential to making adult social care reform work and stick.
“Baroness Casey is right to acknowledge that many of the current complexities and challenges facing adult social care system are not a failure of local government. Rather, they follow decades of national political indecision and delay to address social care reform and funding as well as years of not giving social care the priority it deserves.
“Councils’ role as convenors of people and communities can help maximise input into the Casey Commission’s Big Conversation. The LGA’s cross-party foundation can play a key role in supporting the cross-party consensus building that the Commission is committed to achieving.
“Successful reform will require a new partnership between national government, local government and citizens. It will ultimately be judged by whether people are better able to remain connected to the people, places and passions that matter most in their lives."