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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