OPINION at the sharp end a users view It was yet another dismal, crisis ridden year for adult social work and social care. But one event right at the end of 2014 offered new hope. The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, now Labour controlled, is abolishing home care charging for older and disabled people. The announcement was heavy with symbolism. It was made at an event celebrating the UN International Day of Disabled People organised jointly by the council and local disabled peoples organisations after a long campaign. With perfect irony, the scheme is being funded by 400,000 cuts in PR, council publications and lamppost banners. However, this reform is much more than symbolic. It may be transformative in its impact on service users, social work and social care. Do you remember how personal budgets were originally hawked about by their advocates and government as transformational? Well, we have been seeing that the only kind of transformation that they have really been part of at policy level has been the extension of privatisation, bureaucracy, cuts in collective services and how many people get support. Scrapping home care charges, long attacked by user-led organisations as a tax on disabled people, is something else. Social care is sometimes remembered as the land the post-war welfare state forgot when its pioneers were creating the National Health Service and a system of cradle-to-grave social security. There is truth in this to the extent that local authorities were left with responsibility for some social services. But it was never clearly expected that these would be means- and needstested as the old poor law had been. There was some charging but, by the late 1970s, many local authorities were moving away from this discriminatory, wasteful and inefficient system. What led to the present disastrous system, which former care minister Paul Burstow describes as teetering on the edge of crisis, was Mrs Thatchers determination to marginalise social care and make people pay for it. The machine didnt need mending, but she was determined to break it. Out went much-valued council home helps, offering a face you could trust and rely on. Into your house instead came a succession of badly treated, unknown home care workers. Hammersmith and Fulhams decision to scrap Mrs Thatchers charges represents the first major counter to this inefficient, wasteful and damaging policy. Well done and thank you, disability campaigners and the council. This could be an unexpected new year present for many service users and their families. It has exciting implications for social workers supporting adults. Most of all, I hope we will be seeing many other councils making the same new years resolution to end home care charging. Peter Beresford is chair of Shaping our Lives and professor of social policy at Brunel University PETER BERESFORD Hammersmith and Fulhams abolition of home care charging is being funded by cuts in PR, council publications and lamppost banners "