The Care Act 2014
First official figures on council performance under the Care Act have
been released and is it a shock that over
half of service users received reviews?
Thus meaning
Councils falling behind.
Honestly no,
not really.
Local authorities in England have
fallen short of an expectation that care plans should be reviewed at least once
a year under the Care Act, official figures reveal.
Data published today by NHS Digital shows that 55
per cent of people who had been receiving care for at least 12 months did not
receive a review during 2015-16. Where reviews had been carried out, around
half led to changes in care plans. A third of carers in contact with councils
did not receive a review or assessment.
Under the Care Act guidance there
is an expectation that reviews take place “no later than every 12 months”.
In May it was revealed on the
Community Care Website that social work teams were racking up backlogs of reviews due to staff shortages,
with some service users waiting up to 18 months to be seen.
A month later, a report by the
House of Commons public accounts committee called on the government to consider
whether the annual review requirement was creating ‘unnecessary’ costs for
local authorities.
The NHS Digital publication marks
the first official data on local authority performance in the first year of the
Care Act, with the legislation coming into force in April 2015. Key findings
included:
·
Councils
received 1.81m requests for support from new clients in 2015-16, a slight
decrease on the 1.83m received the previous year.
·
More than
half (57%) of requests resulted in no direct support from the council,
including 28% that resulted in signposting or universal services.
·
Councils
delivered long-term social care support to 873,000 people during the year, down
from the 885,000 in 2014-15.
There were 387,000 carers in
contact with local authorities, of whom 314,000 (81%) received direct support.
Campaigners expressed concern
that fewer people were accessing care and support and called on ministers to
prioritise social care funding in next month’s Autumn Statement.
Vicky McDermott, chair of the
Care and Support Alliance, said: “Today’s publication makes sobering reading,
showing that fewer people are receiving long-term support despite demographic
pressures meaning that more and more people need it.
“Because of a lack of funds, cuts
to care budgets mean that vulnerable older people, disabled people and their
carers are being forced out of the system.”
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