Scope warns 100,000 disabled people will fall out of care system

More than 100,000 disabled people will be left without essential support to get up, get dressed and get out of the house, unless the Government underpins its social care reform with an emergency injection of funding, the disability charity Scope is warning.

The Government’s Care Bill is set to have its first debate in Parliament on Tuesday 21 May 2013.

The reforms seek to tackle the crisis in care by introducing a cap on costs, a new means-testing threshold and national eligibility to end the postcode lottery in care.

But the plans will also raise the bar for eligibility to social care (see page 32 of the White Paper).

This will, according to academics at the London School of Economic, leave 105,000 disabled people outside of the system altogether.

A third of the people that receive social care are disabled.

But some 69,000 disabled people assessed as having social care needs have already fallen out of the system as councils get to grips with a funding black hole of £1.2 billion. Some 87% of councils have set eligibility at a higher level for 2013/4.  

The Care Bill

The Care Bill looks set to apply this higher level across all councils. This move will take the total outside the system to 105,000.

A Scope survey found that right now 40% of disabled people receiving social care support are not having their basic needs met.

But, argues the charity, without an emergency injection of funding, this figure will be much higher.

Richard Hawkes, Chief Executive of the disability charity Scope, said:
“The Care Bill could be a bold response to a system in crisis. But the plans are fatally undermined by a critical lack of funding. A cap on costs, national eligibility, better integration of health and care are positive moves but they will mean nothing for the 100,000 disabled people pushed out of the system.

“Disabled people are feeling isolated and living their lives without basic dignity because they don’t get the social care support they desperately need.

“Almost 40% of disabled people told us that their social care support did not meet basic needs including eating properly, washing, dressing or getting out of the house.

“There is a £1.2 billion funding gap in the basic support that disabled people need to live their lives.

“If the Government genuinely wants to deliver a fit and proper social care system that prevents disabled people from reaching crisis, it needs to ensure the Comprehensive Spending Review includes a clear settlement to tacking the chronic funding gap that exists.”

The care crisis – latest developments

The Government’s plans are backed up by a recent announcement on greater integration between health and social care. But Scope argues that like the plans in the Bill, these proposals will be undermined by a lack of funding.

Last week a cross-party panel of MPs and Lords, led by Baroness Campbell a well-known disabled peer and Heather Wheeler, an influential Tory MP, called on the Government to use NHS cash to help fund social care to fix a system that is devastating lives. The inquiry found that a chronic lack of funding means that disabled people are left to reach crisis point before they get support for the basics in life – getting up, washed, dressed, having a homecooked meal and being able to leave their homes. The chairs argued that this has a human cost on disabled people as well as a financial cost because interventions later in the day are more expensive. The inquiry recommended that cash from the ring-fenced NHS budget should be made available through local Health and Wellbeing Boards for councils and the NHS to jointly spend on preventative social care to help stop disabled people reaching crisis in the first place.

The inquiry follows a growing dossier of evidence that suggests the social care system for disabled people is in crisis.

Research by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) revealed that £2 billion has already been cut from council social care budgets over the past two years and a further £800 million is likely to be cut in the next year. This is despite growing demand for social care support.

Meanwhile a Joint Committee of both houses scrutinising the draft care and support bill, which warned the Government’s plans will fail without a greater focus on prevention and integration.

Earlier this year, five charities lifted the lid on the scale of the crisis revealing that care for disabled people was underfunded by £1.2 billion and that some 40 per cent of disabled people didn’t receive the support they needed to get up, get washed, get dressed and get out.

Scope is running a campaign called Britain Cares, which encourages people to show the Government that they care about support for disabled people and to call for properly funded social care. We have just launched a video in support the of campaign. It’s voiced by Stephen Fry and has more than 70,000 views.