More Cuts On The Way ? What A Surprise ... A Headline Since 2004 And The Very First Wave!

All about caring
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INTERLOCKING THREAD … WHAT , AGAIN ? … MAIN LA MELTDOWN ONE : https://www.carersuk.org/forum/news-and-campaigns/latest-caring-news/las-financial-meltdown-nationwide-support-services-cuts-council-tax-rises-arrears-31688 :




**Thousands of old and disabled people could be impacted by social care cuts, report says

“Social workers, managers and councillors are having to make incredibly difficult decisions based on dwindling resources, which should not be allowed to happen in a modern, compassionate society.”**



Care cuts inevitable in " Fragile and failing " system.


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**_Further cuts to care services in England will be needed in the coming year, council chiefs are warning.

Local authorities plan to spend £22.5bn in 2019-20 on services for older people and younger adults with disabilities.

That represented a rise of £400m on last year but was not enough to keep up with demand and inflation, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) said.

It warned services were “fragile and failing”, after surveying 151 councils.

The government said it would be looking to publish plans to overhaul the system “at the earliest opportunity”.

The Green Paper is now nearly two years behind schedule.

We are being penalised’

One couple caught up in the squeeze is Pauline and Roger Wellman.

Roger, 74, has had cancer and now struggles with dementia and a severe skin condition.

He is cared for by Pauline, 72, who says they had to fight for support from their local council and still make contributions towards the help they now receive.

“We’ve worked all our lives,” Pauline says.

"It seems to me we are penalised - because if we didn’t have anything, we would get everything.

“Don’t you think sometimes that is a little unfair?”

One of their care workers, Lauren Counsell, says even when people such as the Wellmans do receive support, it is often insufficient.

“A lot of people you go to see don’t have the hours they need,” she says.

“But the council has a criteria - and they have to stick with it.”
How bad will things become?\




The charity Age UK estimates 1.4 million older people are not being given the help they need.
The ADASS said councils had had to make £7bn of cuts to care budgets since 2010.

And the group is predicting another £700m of savings will be needed in the coming year.

Some of that could be made through more efficient ways of working.

But the ADASS said social care directors would have to focus services on those with the highest needs to make ends meet.

And its survey of councils suggests over the past six months more than 7,000 people have been affected by the closure of care services run by private agencies working on behalf councils.
ADASS president Julie Ogley said there was a desperate lack of money in the system and over a third of the anticipated spend for 2019-20 would come from charges to the public and separate one-off grants.

“We are having to make incredibly difficult decisions based on dwindling resources, which should not be allowed to happen in a modern, compassionate society,” she said.

Alzheimer’s Society director of policy Sally Copley said: "How much more evidence do we need that social care is on its knees?

“By failing to take action, the government is betraying hundreds of thousands of people who depend on social care for support.”_**

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And yet again I ask the question…
With ever more money going in to Government, how come so much less is coming out at the sharp end?
Where is it being syphoned off to?

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The tax cuts … to the richest and to business … need to be funded from somewhere !

( Austerity … how to preserve the assets and fiances of the rich at the expense of the poor. )

Just look at what BoJo is proposing … be fun watching him becoming PM on day one , and oused on day two following a vote
of no confidence ?

As for his rival . dear Jeremy , recommend the Medicine Balls section in The Eye for him … would definately be flagged up on this forum if I were to post even some of it … the mild bits that is !

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**One in five councils face drastic spending cuts within months.

Cuts to local government funding mean many will be forced to act to stave off bankruptcy.**


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**_The deteriorating financial prospects for local government mean that within months nearly one in five councils in England may be forced to impose drastic spending controls to stave off bankruptcy, council leaders have warned.

The Local Government Association (LGA) said councils had little confidence that they would be able to deliver the already tough savings targets they had set themselves for this financial year, and would have to go back for extra cuts to meet their legal requirement to balance their budgets.

A further one in three councils surveyed said prospects were so bleak that within three years they would be unable to meet their statutory obligation to provide an adequate service in core areas such as adult social care, child protection and homelessness prevention.

Lord Porter, the LGA chairman and a Tory peer, said: “As this survey shows, if the government fails to adequately fund local government, there is a real risk to the future financial viability of some services and councils.”

The LGA, which holds its annual conference in Bournemouth on Tuesday, has called for urgent funding guarantees amid concerns that the government’s three-year spending review planned for the autumn will be postponed because of uncertainty caused by the Tory leadership contest and the looming October Brexit deadline.

Even if councils are given an emergency one-year “rollover” financial settlement for 2020-21, this will lock austerity into town hall budgets for a 10th successive year, raising fears that a further round of cuts and redundancies will critically undermine the quality and safety of day-to-day services.

Porter told MPs last month that vulnerable people would die as a result of social care cuts if the funding gap between resources and demand widened further, saying that “the first serious shock will be when a secretary of state has to stand up and explain to the public why those people died because the money was not available”.

He told the Commons housing, communities and local government committee: “I am not sure anybody who gets elected to parliament wants to be the person who stands on the newsstand and explains why people died because of fiscal policy. It is only money, at the end of the day. Why do we need to lose people because of money?”

Last year Tory-run Northamptonshire county council in effect declared bankruptcy and imposed a ban on non-essential spending. Its failure to make planned savings after years of cutbacks and chaotic management left it unable to fulfil its legal requirement to meet its spending obligations and balance its budget.

It reportedly stabilised its finances early this year after selling its headquarters and spending £60m of the proceeds to balance the books. However, it has since reported a £6m overspend on its adult social care budget, just three months into the new financial year.

Councils have already had proposed cuts to statutory services such as libraries and Sure Start centres challenged – and sometimes overturned – in the courts on the grounds that the cuts breach the legal obligation to provide an adequate level of service. More judicial review challenges are expected.

The shadow communities secretary, Andrew Gwynne, said community neglect was the legacy of a decade of municipal austerity. “Our councils keep our streets cleaner and safer, protect the most vulnerable in society and maintain our green spaces – but a decade of austerity has eroded these vital services away.”

The LGA estimates that between 2010 and 2016, local authorities will have lost 60p out of every £1 they received from central government. By next April the gap between council resources and demand will be £3bn, rising to £8bn by 2025, fuelled by wage inflation and the rising costs of adult and child social care.

The LGA survey was completed by 141 out of 339 LGA member councils between 28 March and 5 June.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “Councils are a vital link to meet the needs of residents. That’s why we’re providing local authorities with access to £46.4bn this year – a real-terms increase – including extra funding to support some of our most vulnerable groups.”_**