Category Archives: ukcuts

Care home patients hit by £240 fees rise

December 26, 2012   Carers, Older care, ukcuts

“If I don’t pay, I could be forced to take my aunt out of the home.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

The Sentinel By laura james

FEES at a residential home have rocketed by £240 a month – because of a lack of council funding.

Dementia patients at Park Hall Care Home, in Bentilee, will have to pay out an extra £60 per week from January 1, following the decision earlier this month.

It means residents who currently pay £485 will have to meet a new weekly cost of £545.

Ideal Carehomes, who run the Ubberley Road facility, say they have been forced to increase fees because a Stoke-on-Trent City Council subsidy does not reflect ‘the true cost of providing quality care.’

Mark Greaves, managing director of Ideal Carehomes, said: “We have been relentlessly lobbying ministers, civil servants and local authorities to establish a fairer framework for fees across the country and one which does not discriminate against self-funding residents.

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Learning disabled and carers must be to the fore in reforms

December 22, 2012   Carers, cerebral palsy, disability, learning difficulties, ukcuts

Cuts to these services do not work.

The proposal to shut three day centres in Glasgow and provide other services “in the community” is billed as a reform, but in fact it is only a step in a process which has been going on for years, of trying to cut the cost of learning disability (LD) services and at the same time introduce “personalisation” as the means of meeting needs and allocating scarce resources (“Kelman condemns closure of centres”, The Herald, December 17, and Letters, December 17, 18 & 19).

The need to cut costs is real. Regardless of who is to blame for the current squeeze on local government resources, in the real world there is going to be less money to spend on all local government services for some time to come. It is therefore essential to focus resources on things which will do most good.

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Carers say funding cuts will end up costing council more in long term

December 17, 2012   Carers, disability, health, ukcuts

Cuts of £500,000 to carers services in Derby will cost the city council more in the long run.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Derby Telegraph

 

By PAUL WHYATT

CARERS in Derby say plans to slash funding for services they use by £500,000 will cost the city council far more in the long term.

Vita Snowden, of the campaign group Protect Derby Carers’ Services, said many of the city’s 5,000 carers would be unable to cope if their support services were forced to fold as a result of the cuts.

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    Councillor Fareed Hussain said carers would still be able to access services.

And that, she claimed, would leave the council having to take on responsibility for the care of thousands more vulnerable adults.

Ms Snowden said: “The council thinks it is saving money by cutting carers’ services but it will end up spending much more.

“It costs the council approximately £26,000 per year to pay for one person to live in a care home. The amount it is looking to cut over the next three is the same as the amount it would cost them to look after 20 adults.

“There are 5,000 carers looking after loved ones in Derby. If they cannot cope, thousands more adults will have to go into care homes. It will cost the council millions more.”

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