CM Local Authorities

Council spending on adult social care services dropped by 1% in real terms in 2013-14, the latest figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) show. Over a five year period from 2008-09, expenditure has decreased by 3% in real terms, most sharply when budget cuts introduced by the coalition government post-2010 began to bite.

Contrary to the many calls to government to implement the Dilnot Commission’s recommendations (CCMn July 2011), healthcare insurer Partnership has criticised the plans.

Marking Derbyshire's biggest ever investment in specialist housing, day care and residential services for older people, the scheme aims to deliver dementia-friendly care and state-of-the art accommodation’ to hundreds of older people across the county over the next five to seven years.

Community Care Market News (News) December 1998 The number of people receiving state-funded home care in Scotland fell by just over 9000...

Community Care Market News (News) August 1998 Age Concern is calling on the government to issue new guidance to local authorities regarding...

Wales has lost one in five council-run care beds in the last five years according to research completed by the BBC Radio Cymru’s Post Cyntaf programme. It discovered that local councils are closing residential homes and opting for care in the community and private homes. The head of the Welsh Assembly’s Health and Social Care Committee, Mark Drakesford, said it was a long term trend affecting the 23,000 people in Wales needing care. He explained it had been happening for at least the past ten years and forecast it continuing over the next ten years. He said that local authorities had diversified residential care options and moved away from traditional homes. He added: Local authorities have invested money into creating services that allow people to stay at home for longer, where on the whole, we think people prefer to be.’

The Local Government Ombudsman has told councils that they are ultimately responsible for the actions of the care homes they commission services from after a local authority-funded resident was charged top up fees for the same care on top of the council’s contracted rate. In what she described as not an isolated case’ Ombudsman Dr Jane Martin ruled that Merton council was guilty of maladministration causing injustice by allowing Sutton Court Care Centre, owned by Eastbourne-based Hydefall Limited, to charge a service user more money. The family of the elderly woman had contacted Merton about having to pay the difference between the council rate and the home’s fees for private residents and then took their case to the Ombudsman. As the contract for the woman’s care was between the council and Sutton Court, Dr Martin ruled that there should have been no fee negotiation between the care home and the family as Sutton Court was not entitled to any more funding than the council’s usual rate.

Community Care Market News (News) November 2004 Eight out of ten UK local authorities with the lowest male life expectancy at birth...

Birmingham city council was found to have failed in its mental health assessment processes last month and did not provide direct payments in a timely manner, following a report by the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO).

Community Care Market News (News) February 2004 The Department of Health (DoH) is to consult on how councils with social services responsibilities...