Tag Archives: social care
Counting the cost of controversial benefit reforms
Council calculates cost of welfare reform
May 3 2013 by Doug Archibald, Dumfries & Galloway Standard
The council is counting the cost of controversial benefit reforms brought in by Westminster.
A seven-strong team is being put in place to cope with changes that have implications of £2 million for the authority.
A sub-committee was briefed on the situation this week.
NHS ‘ring fence’ threatened by plan to help social care
More than £1bn likely to be transferred from health budget to local authorities
Friday 26 April 2013
Ministers are to effectively abandon their pledge to ring-fence NHS spending by diverting more than £1bn to cover the spiralling cost of social care, The Independent can disclose.
The Government has decided to act amid fears that hospitals are admitting elderly patients who could be better cared for at home.
The plans – being drawn up as part of the Government’s spending review – are likely to see at least £1bn transferred from the Department of Health to local authorities to keep people out of hospital.
Family Carers need the internet for support and friendship
Why it’s important to get older people and carers confident online
Rates of digital exclusion in social care are higher than in the general populationinShare0
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Emma Solomon
- Guardian Professional,
The government’s digital by default agenda seeks to realise £1.8bn of savings by moving transactions with citizens online and it aims to boost the value of the economy by £63bn by developing better digital skills across the country.
Evidence suggests that being net savvy can save us time, money, make us feel better connected, less lonely and better informed. Conversely, being digitally excluded means having less (and diminishing) access to public and commercial services, to information and advice and to social interaction, all of which adversely impacts on wellbeing.
When depression affects 20% of older people living in the community and 40% living in elder care homes, compared with 10% of the population at large, and when national data shows that informal carers have lower levels of wellbeing than non-carers, being digitally literate is not just desirable, it becomes necessary.
Digital Unite research has shown that of those over 55s who are using the internet, four out of five (86%) said it had improved their lives, 72% said being online had helped reduce their feelings of isolation and 81% said using the internet makes them feel part of modern society. In addition, 20% of older learners in a Digital Unite social housing learning programme felt their understanding of health-related issues had improved as a result of being online.