Monthly Archives: January 2013

Social care is bearing the brunt of council cuts

January 29, 2013   Carers, disability, ukcuts

Statistical manipulation disguises the fact that disabled people are being hit the hardest by cuts to benefits and services

 

Sally Bercow (centre) and Jane Asher (left) join protesters on the Hardest Hit march against cuts to disability benefits and services.

One of the extraordinary features of the cuts programme has been the fate of social care. At the same time as announcing the deepest cuts in public expenditure since the creation of the welfare state, there have been several pronouncements about extra funding for social care and how any failure to safeguard services for disabled children, adults or older people would be because of failings in local government.

For instance, the 2010 comprehensive spending review declared that there would be “£2bn a year of additional funding by 2014-15 to support social care”. However, a closer examination of these figures shows it was merely a statistical manipulation, achieved by closing one small funding stream, restarting it and then publishing the cumulative figure for a five-year period. The truth is very different.

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Local councillor said Dean’s home care was a ‘shambles’

January 28, 2013   Carers, disability, Scotland

Local councillor carpeted after slamming own social work department over disabled son’s care services on Facebook

THOMAS COCHRANE, who is SNP councillor for Shotts, took to Facebook to vent his fury over home care services provided for his son Dean, who suffers from quadriplegic cerebral palsy.

Thomas said Dean’s home care was a ‘shambles’
Thomas said Dean’s home care was a ‘shambles’
David Johnstone

A COUNCILLOR has been carpeted for branding his own social work department a joke on Facebook.

Thomas Cochrane went on the social networking site to vent his fury over home care services provided for his severely disabled son Dean.

The widower complained that North Lanarkshire social work officials failed to inform him that they had either cancelled or changed the times of home visits for 11-year-old Dean.

Thomas posted on Facebook: “Social work home care is an absolute joke.

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Bed cuts blow for dementia families

January 27, 2013   Alzheimer’s, Carers, dementia, mental health

Published on Sunday 27 January 2013 16:00

Mental health workers and carers have hit out at plans to cut the number of beds available for dementia patients in the Lancaster district.

Families of dementia sufferers also reacted angrily to suggestions that new technology could bridge the distance gap if patients are sent to a new unit in Blackpool saying: “You can’t hold hands with an iPad”.

Mental health service provider Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust is proposing two options as part of streamlining measures, which would see the closure of the Altham Meadows Assessment Unit in Morecambe.

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