Disabilities-Plan Row Shock

Council leaders have expressed “amazement” that not-for-profit organisations have reacted angrily to plans for people with learning disabilities in Cardiff. Support groups, carers and organisations providing learning disabilities services, recently expressed grave concerns about Cardiff’s plans to cut £3m from the budget. There are fears that people with learning difficulties could become prisoners in their own homes as a result of the cuts.

But the council last night accused service providers of trying to “derail a process that will deliver better, more cost-effective services to some of Cardiff’s most vulnerable people”.

The damning joint review of social services in 2002 first recommended that services should be renegotiated, stating that the existing model for supported accommodation in the city could not be afforded in the long-term.

Councillor John Dixon, executive member for health, social care and wellbeing, said, “While I understand the unions’ position, although I disagree that jobs will be lost, I have little sympathy for the providers. Nobody has the right to expect to receive public money for services that are not scrutinised and are not tested in the marketplace.”