Category: Community Care- Adults
Councils with social care responsibilities in England are facing a £2.1bn funding shortfall next year, according to research from UNISON. The public sector workers’ union said the black hole local authorities face in 2022-23 will lead to “huge service and staff cuts”, unless central government steps in to increase funding. On average, authorities providing adults’ […]
The total number of uncompleted Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) applications has fallen for the second year running, the latest statistics show. Annual data released by NHS Digital covering the year to 31 March 2021 revealed that the total number of unfinished applications in England fell by 8% to 119,740 – down around 10,000 on the […]
A local authority has been urged to review all residential care placements since 2020, after an investigation found it had wrongly charged a man top-up fees for his mother’s care. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman concluded Dudley council had not offered ‘genuine choice’ to the man, ‘Mr X’, after it failed to present […]
By Denise Turner Whatever the consequences of the lifting of restrictions, there is little doubt that 19 July marked a significant moment in the pandemic in England. However, whilst the ‘Thank You Day’ for NHS staff and ‘Clap for Heroes’ (formerly ‘Clap for Our Carers’) have provided moments of collective gratitude, and deaths from Covid […]
Social workers will receive new standards on working with autistic children and their families, as part of the government’s revised autism strategy, published last week. The capability statement, due by May 2022, will be in line with a statement for practice with autistic adults, published in 2019, which is designed to help practitioners work in […]
Care home providers face losing 40,000 staff from the government’s policy of requiring all their staff to be fully vaccinated, exacerbating job losses already suffered this year. The figure is the Department of Health and Social Care’s (DHSC) best estimate of the impact of its policy of requiring all staff working in care homes to […]
The government has dropped a proposed overhaul of the interface between the Mental Health Act 1983 (MHA) and the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) due to limited support. It has also rejected amending the MHA to permit remote assessments, which are currently unlawful. However, it plans to press ahead with its broader reforms to the […]
Provisions in the Coronavirus Act 2020 allowing councils to suspend parts of the Care Act 2014 have finally been removed from the statute books, four months after the government’s decision to do so. The so-called Care Act easements allowed councils to suspend duties to assess needs, carry out financial assessments and make support plans. They also […]
A new exemption from self-isolation for double-vaccinated social care staff in contact with people who test positive for Covid-19 poses “very significant risks”, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) has warned. Since Monday, fully vaccinated frontline care staff who have been told to self-isolate by NHS Test and Trace, or advised to […]
Almost 7,000 people have been waiting more than six months for a social care assessment, as councils face an “avalanche of need”, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services has warned. Though there are no statutory timescales for assessments under the Care Act 2014, waits of this length far exceed the one-month targets set […]