Family of autistic man plan legal challenge over care conditions | Social care | The Guardian

Campaigners are calling for greater efforts to provide care in the community for people with severe learning disabilities. Photograph: AA Pix/Alamy

I have for years been saying that funding for social care is extremely important, but until recently I feel no one has been listening. That is certainly true about this Government for even now they are not listening and when it comes down to the facts, it is because, in reality, they do not even care.

I therefore support this legal challenge in every aspect.

To remedy the funding situation this Government needs to immediately refund to all Local Authorities (LAs) all the money withheld by Austerity Cuts and fully refund all the COVID costs LAs have had to encounter.

Only then will there be any chance that social care could be improved and in doing so relieve some of the burden the lack of social care has been causing to the NHS and the resulting effects on health care.

But there are also other measures this Government could do, one of which to immediately allow more non-UK citizens the enter the UK so they can be employed in social care for this would go a long way to ensure more persons would be available to work in social care. But also to ensure funding is sufficient to LAs so that care providers can be able to pay their care workers a more reasonable salary, to the extent of at least £14 per hour rather that the current National Living wage of £8.91or even the Real Living wage of £ 9.90 out of London (£11.05 within London).

But others need to be improves which includes

realistic sick pay rates

travel rates

unsocial hours rates

working conditions

and more

Social care is just as important as the NHS as both are inter-reliable on each other.

Source: Family of autistic man plan legal challenge over care conditions | Social care | The Guardian

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People with autism suffer ‘inhumane’ treatment in specialist hospitals, report finds | UK News | Sky News

This is a disgrace that, in this day and age, people can be treated in this way and in a civilised Society within the UK, this should not be occurring.

In England since 2015 Care & Reatment Reviews , (CTRs) have been carried out under the guidance of NHS England. Within these reviews, as well as Psychiatrists, Social Workers and other Professionals, there is the person who is at the centre of the care and treatment, some of their family members, but also a person who is an ‘Expert by Experience’. These Experts by Experience could well be members of the public, who are family carers themselves and after extensive training will be asked to go to these reviews, which could be anywhere within England. They should be treated as an equal member of the review and before the review they will have had private meetings with the person at the centre of the care and treatment process and their family to ascertain their views.

This whole process is there to look at the ‘best interests’ of the person at the centre of the care and treatment process and to ensure the person is allowed to live in the place which is best for them.

I, myself, went through most of this training, but had to withdraw as it became clear that I would not have the free capacity of time to do these reviews, which would most likely be away from where I lived and could require overnight stays.

I was a family carer for my adult daughter who lives with myself in our own home and at the time with also my wife, but since then she became deceased on 26 September 2020.

With my caring responsibilities, I took the view that I did not have sufficient spare time to carryout these reviews, so, regrettably had to withdraw from the reviews programme.

These reviews have and are reducing to number of persons being subjected to stays in these hospital settings and also reducing the time of these stays in these hospitals, Assessment & Treatment Units, (ATUs).

Unfortunately, the state of Social Care within the UK and the availability of suitable community social accommodation are not heling these persons with Learning Disabilities and/or Autism and could well be increasing these stays in these ATUs.

For funding for both Social Care and Social Housing is well short of what it should be.

In fact, Social Care has never been adequately funded, even before 1970, when Social Care was fully put under the responsibility of Local Authorities, (LAs). Then the 10 years of Tory Austerity Cuts exacerbated the funding shortage and now COVID-19 is making it even more worse.

This Government and the previous Governments are fully responsible for this severe underfunding of Social Care and this needs immediate attention.

Yes, this Government has made some funding available, but it falls way short of what is actually required and therefore all LAs are in a negative budget situations, with many of them in a very serious budget deficit.

As LAs are not allowed to be in deficit for each year they have to approve a ‘balanced’ Budget, so all these deficits will have to be cleared. If this Government was prepared to underwrite all these deficits and provide all LAs with sufficient funding to fund all their legal requirements then this would go some way to improve social care.

However, from the lack of comment from this Government it would appear that this will not be forthcoming, so in 2021/2022 LAs will still go into deficits. and persons in need of Social Care, even these persons in ATUs, will suffer more through the severe lack of appropriate quality and quantity of Social Care.

I feel so strongly on this lack of funding, that I created the petition, Solve the crisis in Social Care,

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/solve-the-crisis-in-social-care

So, if you agree please sign the petition and then Share.

Should you wish for more information this can be found here.

 

Source: People with autism suffer ‘inhumane’ treatment in specialist hospitals, report finds .

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