Central Government attacks the vulnerable in our society.

Central Government attacks the vulnerable in our society.

It has been revealed by a survey of social service departments, that English councils had a deficit of £1.77 billion in their social care budgets for 2005/06. It blames the NHS financial crisis, on under-funding from central government and an ageing population, so how much worse will this be for 2007/8?

This can only be described as an attack on the most vulnerable in our society by central government, a government, you may recall, that stated that the NHS was only safe in their hands.

Evidence prepared by the Local Government Association for the parliamentary health select committee, warns that the NHS funding crisis is now having a knock-on effect on social care for the elderly and disabled, with a number of local authorities now experiencing "significant problems" because of cutbacks in programmes they fund jointly with the health service.

Local authorities are being forced to step in to cover the shortfall in central government funding with money raised from the council tax.

Central government had responded to some of the pressures which have been building up within the care system by providing some extra funding. However, government support has come nowhere near meeting the strains inflicted on social services departments by rising levels of demand coupled with the increased costs of providing residential and nursing home care. This situation has exacerbated by new statutory duties foisted upon local authorities.

In addition, the growing shortages of places for older people in residential and nursing homes are leading to spiralling increases in costs. In the future, local government will be `getting by' in social care by restricting services to the most needy. The pressures, however, on users, carers and staff will be considerable.

This in turn, will breed reactive, short term responses, rather than longer term proactive strategies based on secure funding. Social care needs secure, consistent, higher levels of funding to support a more strategic approach to promoting independence, while supporting the most vulnerable people.

The Government believe that any ‘slack’ in the system will be taken up by volunteers.

But becoming a volunteer carer is not a role people willingly choose, but is more of a vocation that is bestowed upon them by a collection of circumstances.

It is estimated that in the United Kingdom there are approximately 5.7 million people who care for a relative, partner, friend or a disabled child in an unpaid capacity. Collectively, carers save the country around 57 billion pounds each year, which is the equivalent of a second National Health Service.

These people belong to all sections of the community, come from all walks of life and have to deal on a daily basis with a diverse set of circumstances, which can be unique to them and the person they care for. In fact anyone can find themselves in the role of carer during any time of their life, from childhood (children are allowed to be carers to a parent!), through to teenagers and any part of a person's adulthood.

For all these reasons, it can be difficult to generalise too much about what it is to be a carer and the specific issues that go along with it.

Here are a few statistics to put into perspective what it means to be a carer:

• One adult in eight in the UK is a carer and one in
six households (16%) contains a carer.
• Almost one million people spend over 50 hours
each week caring for someone.
• 14% (3.3 million) of the female population are carers.
• About 24% of carers have been looking after someone
for at least ten years. 23% have been caring for
between five and nine years.
• Over a third of carers say they receive no outside help.
• 65% of carers suffer from ill-health or injury.
• 59% have deteriorating health as a result of caring.
• More than 2.5 million carers try to hold down a job as
well as care.

A survey carried out by the Association of Directors of Social Services and the Local Government Association, identified that eight out 10 councils say they are tightening eligibility criteria for access to services for people with disability. A similar number - 77% - are adopting the same strategy for older people.

The report warned that an ageing population will continue to demand services at an unprecedented level, with more people over 65 than under 16 for the first time, and in many areas this is already the case.

The report also highlighted the local government finance settlement, which gave half of councils with social services responsibilities a 2% or less increase - below the rate of inflation.

The financial problems of the NHS were also blamed for increasing the number of people receiving social care, rather than care in a hospital.

Medway Unitary Council, is one of many councils, drastically under-funded by central government, and has no choice but to make efficiency savings and delivering ever better value for money in the public sector. But the increased number of people in need of care, coupled with some extreme financial pressures, has left Medway and many other authorities with some deeply worrying problems.

The number of people in need of care is increasing by the day and a fair, sustainable system of funding must be introduced.

Specialised and residential respite care is at risk in being cut back and this really does have an effect because when carers are not getting the care they need then they are not able to carry on caring and the local authority will have to pick up the consequences.

Residents of Strood and Medway are only too aware of the affects of central government under-funding and the service reductions proposed, unfortunately their anger is being miss-directed towards the local authority.

When Ivan Lewis, the Labour Government Minister responsible for social care, states, that "The reality is there is always going to have to be hard choices made in an area where we are spending more and more, year on year, on health and social care". "Of course at a local level people are going to have to make difficult choices. It's okay for people to demand more and more money...but there will always be finite resources."

So now we know.

It’s also time for Medway residents to protest and direct their anger at the real cause of their problems, Gordon Brown and his Labour Government.