Shocking impact of local cuts on disabled people in Wales revealed

Research published by think tank Demos exposes the impact that local budget cuts are having on disabled people in Wales. Funded by Scope Cymru, the research describes the role that councils can play if they want to protect front-line services.  

The research uncovers budget decisions made by the 22 councils in Wales with responsibility for social care, and for the first time ranks them on the impact these budget changes will have on the lives of disabled people – scoring councils on how well they are ‘coping’ with their budgetary changes. This information is displayed in an interactive map.

It shows that the level of cuts to social services budgets does not always coincide with cuts to the front-line – and that the best coping councils are protecting their disability services from the negative impact of reduced budgets.

Of the 22 local authorities in Wales, 21 received cuts to their budget from the Welsh Government. Cardiff received a very small increase.

Anglesey made a substantial budget cut to its social services budget (4.96%) but came third on the coping scale in Wales. Despite increasing its social services budget, Swansea scored badly on the coping scale. The local authority which performed best was Carmarthenshire, with Monmouthshire considered the worst performing council.

Coping scores were mixed across rural and urban areas as well as levels of deprivation. This suggests that councils’ strategies to deal with budget cuts can go a long way to mitigating the negative effect on disabled people.

Compared to England, Welsh social care authorities had better information and monitoring of the number and needs of disabled residents.    

Many councils who introduced the same degree of budget cut scored vastly differently on the coping scale; demonstrating that councils have the ability to introduce measures that can reduce the negative impact on their disabled residents.

The top and bottom scoring councils from across Wales are:

Across the UK, councils ranking at the top of the ‘coping’ index share common characteristics. In the face of budget cuts they have introduced creative steps to reduce the negative impact on disabled residents such as:  

• Promoting co-production – involving disabled people in decision-making processes to design and plan services
• Committing to personalisation – introducing services that promote individual and tailored support for disabled people
• Promoting community based support – rather than formal segregated services for disabled people
• Moving towards more integrated services that incorporate care, health, housing and leisure

An interactive map displaying the Coping with Cuts Index Wales is launched by Demos at www.demos.co.uk/disability-cuts-map

Demos and Scope Cymru are calling on councils to take every step they can to protect disabled people from the negative effect of budget cuts and asking them to share their creative approaches to budget cuts and to learn from other councils wherever possible.

Claudia Wood, author of the report Coping with the Cuts, said:         

“Decisions on the front-line of disability services will make or break disabled people’s lives.

“It’s not enough for councils to blame cuts on the Welsh Government – our research clearly shows that there are best practices at a local level that can make the difference. It’s not just about the amount you have to spend, but how you spend it. Some local authorities are really innovating in an effort to protect disability services – even improve them – with less money.

“Our new coping index goes beyond the top-line funding settlement and looks at what this is doing to disability services.”

Suzanne Jones, Director of disability charity Scope Cymru continued:

“This research reveals the true reality of the lives of thousands of disabled families across the country as they begin to feel the effect of local budget cuts.

“We know that every council has to make cuts and there is no simple way to protect frontline services but some councils in Wales are coping very differently to each other, despite the fact that over half of them have increased their budgets.

“The Welsh Government must play close attention to those councils taking creative steps to attempt to reduce the negative impact of budget cuts on disabled constituents and to encourage collaboration between its councils so more disabled people can benefit from this innovation.”

You can find a copy of the report, as well as an interactive map at http://disability-cuts-map.demos.co.uk/