Tag Archives: social care

Autistic man’s ‘care’ bill not fair, says dad

April 20, 2012   autism, Carers

By Helen Morton

5:00pm Friday 20th April 2012

DISABLED people are soft targets for cash-strapped councils, an autistic man’s father says.

 John and Kevin Kearney

 

Kevin Kearney, of Western Way, South Ham, Basingstoke, suffers from autism and struggles with communication, and for most of his life he has been attending courses which allow him to learn new skills.

Currently, he attends courses four times a week, all of which are partly funded by Hampshire County Council and for which he does not pay. But Kevin has been told by the county council that he must pay £23.94 every week towards ‘care services’.

The 39 year-old, who lives with his parents in Basingstoke, does not receive, or need, any care at home.

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Crisis in care of elderly as £1bn cuts bite

April 18, 2012   Carers, disability, Older care, telecare, ukcuts

Hundreds of thousands face reduction in their support

Wednesday 18 April 2012

Hundreds of thousands of elderly and disabled people face cuts to their support and assistance this year as councils struggle to find new savings of £1bn from social-care budgets, an investigation by The Independent has established.

As town halls cut spending on help for the vulnerable by up to 10 per cent, care homes are being shut, social workers made redundant and charges for day care increased.

There are also warnings that the measures could be counterproductive, as they will increase the strain on hospitals required to care for people not well enough to live at home without support. The economies are being forced through as the cumulative effects of austerity measures announced by the Chancellor mount.

The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (Adass) calculates that budgets dropped in England by £1bn last year and forecasts another £1bn in cuts over the next two years.

Council chiefs are wielding the axe at a time when demographic pressures are growing, with the number of people aged over 85 increasing by more than 250,000 in the last six years.

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NHS reforms: what do they mean for patients?

April 3, 2012   Carers, hospital, ukcuts

It is difficult to gauge what effects the Health and Social Care Act will have, and potential gains are mostly unreliable

 

The top request of National Voices members was for the integration of health and social care.

It is difficult to predict what effect the new Health and Social Care Act will have on patients, service users and carers. The bill was like a giant treatment decision, with the benefits uncertain and the risks considerable.

National Voices, a coalition of health and social care charities, has found it impossible, during the last year, to gauge accurately how the act’s provisions would affect direct patient care and treatment. Hence there could be no simple “for or against” position on the bill – but there was a lot of pushing to improve it.

Among members of National Voices, the strongest concerns have been that: localisation will exacerbate inequalities and social exclusion; gains from successful national strategies and frameworks will be at risk; and the needs of patients with less common conditions will not be identified and responded to by GP commissioners with low awareness.

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