大象传媒

Anna Severwright, a convenor of a movement called Social Care Future, says the voices of disabled and older people need to be heard to help shape the future of social care. In this interview with 大象传媒 Political Reporter Sarah Sanderson, Anna speaks about her own experiences as a disabled woman and the challenges that some people face when accessing adult social care services. Anna says: "A lot of people don't realise that a third of the people who are drawing on social care are working age in this country. Most people, when they think of social care they think of older people. But actually there's people with mental health challenges, learning disabilities and physical disabilities that also rely on social care to be able to live their lives." Anna talks about how it can be a 'fight' for some people to get the support they need. She adds: "Disabled people and older people should be able to be part of our society as they enrich our communities and we want them to be able to live their lives and do all the normal things like work, have fun and keep well. And we want that for ourselves in the future if we need it or for our Mums or for our children. So we're going to try over the next five to ten years to get a different representation of disabled people, hear from disabled people themselves and also, for us, having the voice of older people and disabled people in those places of power so that we are saying what we want from our lives and we are part of the solution." Listen to Anna's interview in full here: