People not receiving support from councils are struggling with a poor quality of life, says the third report on the State of Social Care in England published today by the social care watchdog, CSCI.
 
{mosimage}Commission Chair, Dame Denise Platt said: “Our report is in two parts. On the one hand we show that those who qualify for council support are having a better experience than before. On the other hand those people who fall outside the system, including self funders, have a poor quality experience that can leave them struggling to cope. People who only five years ago qualified for council-arranged help are today excluded by the system and left to fend for themselves. The poor experiences of people and their carers trying and failing to get sufficient help contrast starkly with those people who do qualify for council arranged care.”
 
Following concerns raised by the Commission last year, the third State of Social Care in England report for the first time explores the experiences of people not deemed eligible for state-supported social care. It shows that many younger disabled people and frail older people are being ‘signposted’ to voluntary services. Many are forced to rely on help from family and informal arrangements which can break down at short notice. People unable to rely on families or friends and unable to pay for care services themselves are simply left to cope with everyday life, while some become virtually trapped in their own home.
 
Local councils increasingly only help those with ‘substantial’ or ‘critical’ needs. Although councils use a national set of rules (called Fair Access to Care Services – FACS) to decide who is eligible for support, today’s report shows that who does or doesn’t get help varies not only between but also within the same council. In practice the criteria can be interpreted in different ways by local staff.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has outlined a £2bn “care guarantee” plan for the elderly, as part of his proposals to reform the NHS.

{mosimage}He said the extra cash should fund a minimum level of care for all who need it, ending the “scandalous injustice” of having to spend life savings.

Mr Clegg also called for central NHS targets to be scrapped, saying the current system was “not good enough”.

Labour and the Tories have both recently announced NHS reform plans.

Lib Dem aides said changes to services for the elderly – to be put to the party’s spring conference in March – would reduce the need for people to sell their homes to pay for care.

Under the plans, elderly people could use their personal payments to fund “respite care to give a much needed break to their spouse”.

On a visit to Kingston-upon-Thames, south-west London, Mr Clegg said: “We are the first party with serious plans to end the punishing poverty which afflicts the many elderly people forced to pay for their personal care entirely out of their own pockets.

More than a third of new mothers who took part in the countrywide poll said they had been refused sedatives, painkillers and epidurals, or were forced to wait for them at the height of labour.

Social services in Devon are slowing down admission rates for older people to care homes in a bid to reduce costs.

A new battle of the sexes, dubbed the ‘Daddy Wars’, is raging in the home rather than the workplace, according to new research.

FOSTER children in Manchester have been placed with families who are NOT approved to care for them, a damning report has revealed.

People choosing a care home for their loved ones might be best placed to judge the quality of the establishment by having a meal there, a charity said.

Psychiatrists say a decision to close a unit which offers unique help to people with complex mental health problems will harm vulnerable patients.

A care home boss and his employee have admitted leaving three of their residents locked in a car for hours after they went to a betting shop.

{mosimage}Manager Chris Williams, 43, and carer Agnes Price, 41, appeared at Swindon Magistrates’ Court to admit the wilful neglect or ill treatment of three adults with learning difficulties who were in their care.

The case is the first of its kind in Swindon, with the pair prosecuted under the new Mental Capacity Act 2004 that came into force this year.

The two were told by district judge Mike Layman that they will go to crown court for sentencing and could be sent to prison.

On September 6, the pair took their clients out from the Whiteman Street home in a people carrier and parked in Ferndale Road, the court heard.

They were seen going into a nearby bookmaker’s at about 1pm and three hours later the police received an anonymous tip-off that three men were shut in a car and were distressed.

The three – aged 25, 45 and 56 – are all unable to speak, communicating through touch and smell, and have varying levels of learning difficulties, including Down’s syndrome and autism.

Prosecuting, Paula Mulherne said the caller could see the vehicle’s windows were steamed up, and that the men were in a distressed state shouting and pushing each other and grabbing at the doors.

“A police officer forced entry on arrival and felt a wave of heat from the van,” she said.

“He described it as a hot and muggy day’, and that the van was hot inside and it smelt.”

Once released from the car, passers-by fetched water for the men and helped calm them down.

Police found Williams, of Queensfield, and Price, of Cricklade Road, and spoke to them.

Both accepted they had left their clients, although Williams claimed he thought a window was open and he left music on. He also accepted that they were locked in through the use of childlocks.

The government has announced an extra £520 million to transform care for elderly people and those with disabilities, with local authorities signing an agreement to promote supported living.