Excited to announce the launch of CASCAIDr CIC...

CASCAIDr CIC aims to be your preferred destination for the best information and analysis about any legal rights concerns, related to difficulties with social services, or associated health funding from the NHS.

It's a site for everyone. First and foremost, it's for people with any kind of condition, disability, illness or impairment who might need the support and funding offered by councils under the Care Act, 2014; and for their relatives and friends, too, if the system doesn't seem to be working as it's supposed to - but also for all the people working in this field, from any sector or perspective, if they care about legally literate practice.

This post launches the service, and focuses on what's FREE, first and foremost:

Our free?database is now navigable, even if you’ve only got a vague idea of where to start.

High-level themes, topic overviews and steers along the way?make it possible to get to grips with social services law, even if the language is unfamiliar and your council has given up referring to ‘assessment’, ‘eligibility’, rights, duties or care planning!

Our free?one-off Qs & As service is where to head to, if you want to post a single issue or bespoke question about how the legal framework operates, or what the law says about something to do with health or social services or social care.

Our new Blogspot gives Belinda Schwehr the chance to put 25 years of legal specialisation in social services law to good effect, saying exactly what she thinks, now she’s not the CEO of a charity any longer.

Have a look here for a scorcher of a letter to the Guardian, unpublished, of course, about the void in political and strategic thinking about the crisis in councils’ adult services departments. It focuses on the unravelling of the rule of law that is the direct result of turning off the funding in two separate areas of State responsibility, and ponders whether it is a strategic plan, or just incompetence.

And finally, we’re getting back into regular podcasting again, hoping to catch people’s attention, hearts and minds, on Wednesday lunchtimes, fortnightly, 1.15pm for 45 minutes, commencing 18 September 2024.

The theme is ‘What should our council’s advice and information and Care Act staff be telling us about the way our rights work?’

In each fortnightly session of 6, we’ll be dissecting three related myths which have got lodged in people’s minds, due to the rhetoric, perhaps, or to basic unawareness as to how social care law works. That is, stances which have been around for a long time, but which don’t quite reflect what the Care Act actually says.

The aim is to inform both the public and staff in the public sector, in terms of understanding (and being able to explain, if staff), why these positions are not in fact correct, without triggering hostilities… good for saving everyone time and energy, we hope. There’ll also be Guest slots on podcasts too – so if you’d like a channel for airing an important Care Act or CHC legal rights issue, do get in touch via this page!

All these podcast sessions are free to attend. Recordings of the new series come as part of our?Alert Service, the main source of funding for all our output.

• Please look at that Alert Service and consider signing up, to support us - and your own legal literacy, too.
• It’s ￡25 a year, and intended to be affordable to all, to underline our commitment to community benefit.
• It will save you loads of time, and give you a helpful ‘nudge’ up the learning curve that is the adults’ social care legal framework.

The CIC also offers other?chargeable services?by way of professional consultancy to organisations, training, talks, partnerships and direct access to barristers and crowdfunding).

PS from the CIC's Board: The?impact of a social services safety net is one of the things that still makes this country a civilised place to live in.? It depends on the expertise and integrity of social work staff, and on the rule of law.? That should be something we can all agree on as immeasurably important to all our lives, our wellbeing and our society. And something that MPs and prospective candidates for election should be willing to engage on, and journalists, cover, in an independent press.