DPAC’s ILF and Care funding campaign.
Dear all, we’d really like your help this week and next to write to your MP asking them to send this list of questions to Maria Miller and also after the questions for Maria there is a draft template letter to send to directors of Adult Services.
We want to inundate her with these over a very short period of time.
You might want to add something just about care cuts generally to either letter.
Please could you send copies of any replies you get directly to me linda_burnip@yahoo.co.uk or to mail@dpac.uk.net
1) Further to a previous answer given by Maria Miller’s in which she states “The trustees of the ILF took the decision to close the fund to all new applicants as of June 2010″ can i refer her to the Standard note (SN/SP/5633) on the ILF dated March 2nd 2012 (Author Manjit Gheera) in which it states that ” Following a review of the ILF, the COALITION GOVERNMENT concluded that, as an independent discretionary trust for Social care, the ILF model was “financially unsustainable” and closed the trust permanently for new applications. Can she clarify who actually took the decision to close the Independent Living Fund to all new applicants?
2) It is my understanding that the ILF had asked the government to increase the trust funding to them in able to continue to provide funding to all eligible disabled people (as a Trust making organisation) but the government refused to do this. Is that true and why was that decision made by a government which claims it wishes to protect those with the highest support needs (aka in the government’s terminology ‘the most vulnerable’)
2) Can she show us the actual evidence from the “assessment” to say that the ILF is financially unsustainable. Was this statement based on the Henwood Report which was conducted back in 2007, which is surely now outdated and based upon a vision of social care support which never happened?
3) How does she intend to ensure that the Governments obligations in law under article 19 of the UN convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities are met in relation to people with high support needs, both for people who currently receive ILF and those no longer able to apply.
4) Maria Miller has previously stated that the ILF is a post code lottery. However the ILF is both national & portable. Is it not therefore more the case that it is the Individual Local Authorities Eligibility Criteria, which is more of a post code lottery, and it is those instead which restricts those who can receive Social care & thereby access to the ILF.
The recently published JHRC report raises the issue of your government’s non-compliance with article 19 of the UNCRPD on the right to independent living and the UNCRPD overall. If as you suggest the ILF is a ‘post-code’ lottery. How far is this situation influenced and worsened by your government’s decision to cut funding to local authorities?
5) If as she appears to prefer, the full care support needs of current ILF users and potential future ILF users, were handed over completely to LA’s, how is she going to ensure that these users, who by nature are people with the highest of support needs, are fully supported to live independent lives? Bearing in mind that due to huge budget cuts, many LA’s are now restricting their eligibility criteria and are focusing mainly now on the most basic of care needs and not on helping provide people with support for Independent living as defined by article 19.
Indeed many local authorities now provide no funding for overnight care and are instead issuing continent disabled people with incontinence pads and waterproof sheets instead. Does she feel this is justifiable? If yes how? Could she please explain.
The costs of the overheads for running the ILF are 2% of their total income whereas evidence from Freedom of Information requests would suggest that local authority costs for adult care are often as high as 50% of their total income so what financial modelling is being used by DWP to support the hand over of ILF funding to local authorities and how could best value for that funding be maintained?
6) Is she aware of the Independent Living fund’s response to “caring for our future” the request from the department of Health for comments. In which they show the benefits of a second, Ring Fenced funding stream, to provide for Independent Living support over & above the more basic support which can be funded by LA’s, based on their 23 years experience of providing just that.
Is she also aware of a survey by the British Association of Social workers, which has resulted in a revised code of ethics. The survey found that Social Workers are complaining of “unmanageable and unrealistic” caseloads of service users, and that 82% of BASW members expressed concern about these high caseloads. Mr Hilton Dawson the Chief Executive has stated, ” We are concerned that Government cuts and local authority implementation of this resource rationing is making it impossible for Social Workers to practise to the standards rightly expected of them by BASW’s code of ethics. For example, we have members approaching SWU to tell us that cases are being allocated to named social workers, when crippling caseloads mean that they are sitting in a pile on someone’s desk and that no one has time to actually work on them” Expecting them to take on the additional burden of thousands of ILF care packages is surely unrealistic and would be a disaster for ILF users with even higher support needs than the LA’s are used to managing.
7) What options were examined by the Government in an effort to keep the ILF open in 2010? Also was an Equality Impact Assessment done prior to its closure to new recipients, and what were the findings?
8) What is the expected impact of the LA’s Resource Allocation Systems on those that may have previously qualified for ILF and also the expected impact to current users if it closes?
9) What measurements of the impact on applicants for social care who can no longer access ILF funding are being made? When do the government plan to carry out a legally required Equality Impact Assessment to see what the effect of the closure of the ILF to new applicants is?
10) When will the government carry out an Equality Impact Assessment together with local authorities to measure the full impact of all the cuts to care and support funding?
11) Have there been any enquiries/research carried out to examine local budget impacts on any increased admissions to residential homes since the ILF closure and are there any planned?
12) Has any research/modelling been carried out on the loss to the exchequer of any tax receipts regarding potential Personal Assistant earnings since closure of ILF to new recipients.
13) To what extent do government ministers take notice of UNCRPD when deciding policies which are likely to deprive disabled people of even their most basic human rights?
14) Does Maria Miller agree that the total distrust disabled people and their families have of her makes her position as Minister for Disabled People untenable?
Draft Letter to Directors of Adult Services
Dear Fred,
As a service user/ carer/disabled person I would like to know what plans x council have in place to continue providing adequate levels of care and support if the Independent Living Fund is closed from 2015.
If this funding is not ring-fenced how will the council ensure the money only goes to meet the needs of service users, including those over pension age?
What proportion of the ILF funding monies would be used to meet the overheads involved in supporting disabled people from this funding? Are there any additional resources you feel your department would need to meet these needs?
Finally I would like to know how you are currently supporting the needs of and monitoring the numbers of disabled people who would have been eligible for additional funding from ILF but who have been excluded from this funding either by the closure of ILF to new applicants or by changes to RAS.
Yours etc
Of interest and further information refer https://www.dpac.uk.net/?s=ilf&searchsubmit= , https://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/24368 and https://www.saveilf.co.uk/