HOME CARE

Residents at Bramble Brook House in Mickleover, that has been earmarked for closure are taking their campaign to keep it open to the High Court. Derby City Council has said the decision to close care home was due to a bed surplus in residential homes. Solicitors acting on behalf of all of the residents have issued proceedings for a judicial review and will argue that the consultation process was not valid.

Solicitor Simon Richardson said the Legal Services Commission has granted legal aid to pay for the proceedings. He said, "The proceedings are taken on the basis that the residents believe the closure was a done deal before the consultation began, which made the consultation process superfluous. The residents say that assurances that Bramble Brook would be their last home have been broken." He said that the Legal Services Commission has granted legal aid to pay for the proceedings. (Source: BBC News, Apr/08)

My mother-in-law is an elderly resident of Alvaston who for a good number of years has received help and assistance from the City Council in the form of shopping help, laundry help, cleaning help and gardening help which she pays £50 a visit to the Council. She has been told by a Social Worker, that as from June 2006 all assistance will stop with the exception of the gardeners (The Council are obviously making a good profit out of this little sideline).

It was pointed out to the Social Worker who delivered the news, that she was not physically capable of doing her own shopping, laundry and cleaning. The response of the Social Worker was that some shops do home delivery. As far as I am aware it is the big supermarkets that offer this service via interent connection. My mother in law, at 85 years of age, has obviously got IT technology as a second language and of course, contrary to Tony Blairs dream of broadband access for evryone, in the real world, to pun a phrase, 'just doesn't compute'.

Derby City Council are still advertising these services, and others besides, on their web site. No doubt this is to con the populous that they are caring for the less than capable by offering all this assistance. The Social Worker did leave her with a list of people who undertake cleaning services and enquiries with one provider revealed that £11.50 per hour was expected. That's £24,000 per annum on an average week. The Social Worker then left heading for a neighbour of my mother in law a short distance up the same street where she, in a similarly swift manner, dealt a crippling blow to her independance also.

As far as I am aware there has been no publicity over what is going to happen. It was a Labour pledge to reduce home care charges which they did after they were elected. As a consequence, they are running out of budget, hence the reduction in services to those people on the bottom rung of the ladder who were eligible for help before thisshortsightedness. I understand it was approved prior to the election but not released until after. Geoff Allcock

Three hundred elderly or disabled people have had some or all of their home help taken away by the city council. The cuts, to save £78,000, have been made by the ruling Labour group to help meet its promise to keep council tax rises at or below the level of inflation. People who receive home care are being reassessed and put in one of four categories. Those in the lowest category will have their help withdrawn.

So far, 300 of the 400 people reassessed have been told they no longer qualify for assistance with their laundry. Some have also lost help with shopping and cleaning. Labour made home help free when it won control of the council in July 2005 after criticising the previous Lib Dem/Tory alliance for charging for it. People whose service has been cut have now been told they can pay companies for the work.

Fareed Hussain, the council's cabinet member for adult services, defended the cuts, saying, "Our main aim is to ensure that people do not lose their independence. If the withdrawal of a service would lead to them losing their independence, then we would not withdraw it. I've instructed staff that if anyone does feel their assessment was unfair then we're happy to send someone else to give a second opinion."

Liberal Democrat councillor Ruth Skelton, shadow cabinet member for adult services, said, "People face the choice of paying for the services they need or missing out. It's not free home care for all as Labour promised." (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph, Jun/06)

Before Labour took control, Councillor Chris Williamson said, "We will scrap home-care charges within six weeks and next year's council tax will be at or below inflation. The Labour Party will deliver, we won't disappoint." Councillor Williamson later announced that it will take longer than the promised six weeks to scrap home care charges. He said that his motion has to be approved by the full council, which does not meet until nine weeks after Labour regained power.

The council voted to end the fees, which will mean around 2,000 people will no longer have to pay for their home care service. About 920 people in the city are already receiving free home support. Those who pay do so on a sliding scale, with charges of up to £33 a week. The city council has decided to end the charges to bring it in line with other neighbouring authorities. The end of the charges will cost the city an additional £696,000 for the remainder of the year. Nine staff who work in home care will be moved to other jobs within the council.