Councils slashing free adult social care

Discrimination warning as coalition cuts prompt local authorities to set bar higher for eldery and disabled to receive care

Thousands of older people and those with disabilities have had their care cut in the past year as cash-strapped councils reduce the level of support they provide, a survey has found.

The number of councils in England cutting back on free adult social care has increased by 13% this year, according to the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (Adass).

It found that 19 local authorities had raised the eligibility bar for free adult social care.

Six councils, including the largest, Birmingham, are limiting free care to people in “critical” need, which includes those with life-threatening conditions. Another 116 of 148 councils surveyed only fund people with substantial needs.

Only 22 local authorities now fund people with moderate needs, such as those too frail or ill to eat a meal or take a bath without assistance. Previously, 36 councils gave this assistance.

Richard Jones, chairman of Adass, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “This is a group who five years ago half of councils were providing support to, now we’re down to fewer than 20%. And we fear with more cuts to come in future years it could get even worse.”

The move follow a sharp reduction in central funding for local authorities by the coalition government.

Andrew Harrop, of the charity Age UK, warned that people could die as a result of the cuts, some of which could prove to be illegal.

“They may be failing in their duties under disability discrimination laws or under the Human Rights Act because all public authorities are responsible for looking after the very most disabled and vulnerable,” he told the BBC.

“If a level of support fails at the very minimum test it could be deemed illegal.”

The government has allocated an extra £2bn a year by 2014-15 for social care services but this was not ringfenced and follows deep cuts in local authority funding.

A Department of Health spokesman said: “This funding, together with an ambitious programme of efficiency, should enable local authorities to protect people’s access to services and deliver new approaches to improve their care.”

Adass said the scale of the cutbacks meant frontline social care services would be affected and the situation would only get worse without reform.

“Given the scale of the reductions required and the differential impact on councils, there will be some service reductions in some places with just under a quarter of planned savings falling into this category,” it said in a statement.

“This year’s savings targets in councils are just the beginning of a three to four-year programme of reductions; demographic pressures will not abate and councils’ ability to find alternatives to service reductions will inevitably reduce over time.”

An independent commission on social care set up by the government is due to report in July and will put forward plans in a white paper before the end of the year.

Andrew Dilnot, head of the Commission on the Funding of Care and Support, said adult social care had “always been a cinderella service” that has never worked.

“The system that we have at the moment is not one we can be proud of and it is under enormous pressure,” he told the BBC.

“It’s widely seen as unfair. Even before the reductions in local authority funding that are going on at the moment this was a system that needed reform.

“There’s no doubt that there’s a growing amount of unmet need.”

Dilnot suggested that he backed a national system of assessing care, which would allow for local variation in the way it is delivered.