One in four care workers say cutbacks have hit safety

More than one in four care workers say cuts are making the service they provide no longer ‘fair or safe’.

Many of society’s most vulnerable are being denied their rights, left isolated and bereft of dignity and hope, a damning report reveals.

And many town halls are effectively breaking the law by slashing home help and other services, it says.

Lifting the lid on england’s social care ‘ meltdown’, the survey said cutbacks have led to the elderly and disabled being admitted to hospital with food poisoning, hypothermia and dehydration.

one elderly husband even ended up splitting up from his wife because a council cut the care it provided to her, putting intolerable pressure on the relationship.

the report by the care and support Alliance (csA), a coalition of charities, found that social workers are facing ‘intense pressure’ to ration care due to cash shortages. It comes despite 2014 legislation that bars local authorities from reducing care packages unless a patient’s health has improved.

the report concluded that, in fact, they were being cut for financial reasons. ‘the law is being breached; in some places it seems a matter of policy,’ it said. A survey of 469 social workers found that many have ‘grave concerns’ about care being withdrawn. In one case, a local authority has reduced the length of home visits from 45 to 30 minutes.

one social worker revealed how two of three vulnerable brothers died after cuts forced them into residential care. the third was admitted to hospital with hypothermia and dehydration. Another man who could not look after himself was told the council would not be able to provide hot meals for him. He ended up in hospital with food poisoning. In many cases, adults needlessly ended up in hospital or care homes because of cuts in home support.

the csA said local authorities are ‘scrabbling’ to fulfil their duties to provide care to the most vulnerable with ‘grossly insufficient resources’. the poll found that two thirds of social workers said their local town hall had slashed services.

some 37 per cent felt they could not deliver the care that was needed and 28 per cent were not confident that the reduced care packages they had to administer were ‘fair and safe’.

the authors of the report wrote: ‘It is clear that in some places the law is being at best “bent”, at worst systematically breached, as local authorities scrabble to fulfil their legal duties with grossly insufficient resources.’

Age UK said the report revealed social care was in ‘meltdown’. the Local Government Association, said the findings ‘lay bare the devastating consequences of a social care system that is broken and underfunded’.

‘Broken and underfunded’