Saturday 9 June 2012

UK cutbacks


UK govt. cuts hit homecare residents
British government’s budget cuts have led vast majority of council-funded residential homecare providers not to provide quality care deliver the quality of service the public wants, warns a Labour survey.


8 June, 2012

According to a poll of 99 companies, charities and not-for-profit groups running 770 homes in England, 98 percent of residential homecare providers in England say that council fees are so low that they cannot provide quality care and 92 percent argue it has created a two-tier market.

The survey, which was carried out by the Labour Party, also found that 82 percent of residential care providers were charging self-payers more to cross-subsidize those funded by the council.

Labour's elderly care spokeswoman Liz Kendall MP said that the system is "in crisis" with over £1 billion slashed from local council budgets for older people's social care since the Coalition government came to power.

"Councils are being forced to pass on these cuts to care providers. This is having a devastating effect, with some of the most vulnerable people in society facing a two-tier service or being forced to pay more for care they desperately need," she added.

At present about 120,000 people in residential care are fully self-funded, compared to 170,000 people who are state funded.

Meanwhile, Des Kelly, executive director of the National Care Forum, said the survey's results "confirm the significant challenges faced by all care providers seeking to meet rising expectations of quality standards whilst also developing new, more personalized, services".

Earlier on March, a consumer magazine report criticized Britain’s elderly homecare services as “shocking and disgraceful” and blamed the situation on the Tory-led government’s funding cuts.


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