Tendering For Care

The Commission for Social Care Inspection is calling for urgent action to ensure disabled children continue to get the help they need into adulthood. Inspectors found many have no idea where they will live or who will look after them when they grow up. Social services directors stressed the issue was being made a top priority. But the report criticises local authorities not only for failing to plan ahead, but also for failing to consult young people about their futures.

This document is part of the on-going health reform programme and focuses on the development of a regulatory framework that will support health reform to achieve safety, quality, fairness and efficiency for patients and service users across the health and adult social care system. It is launched for consultation for three months.

Budget 2006 announced that the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review would be informed by a series of policy reviews, one of which was a review of children and young people, building on the Government's strategy to improve their outcomes. Terms of reference of the Review. A discussion paper, published on 9 January 2007, reports on the evidence that has been gathered to date to inform the Review of Children and Young People. It also provides a discussion of the issues and challenges raised by that evidence.

The Society of Procurement Officers (SOPO) voiced their concern over the potential lack of funding for essential services for vulnerable people.

The government has announced a £382m funding package for Primary Care Trusts to improve their building stock.

 The extra money will be spent on buying and modernising buildings, equipment and land. The money is split in to three separate headings:

• £167 million allocated directly to PCTs as operational capital to be used to maintain and modernise their building stocks and replace equipment
• £156 million for strategic capital for PCTs to use to fund new equipment and buildings
• £60 million to modernise dental premises and equipment

PCTs will be able to chose how they spend the extra money which represents a 30% increase on last year.

 Minister for delivery and reform, Andy Burnham said: “This funding will mean that patients will have better facilities and access to more sophisticated equipment which will benefit the community for years to come."

 “By allowing the local NHS to distribute the money, we are ensuring that the needs of patients are put first. It will also help continue the work of the White Paper to bring care closer to home by building new facilities, in the heart of the community.”

This report claims that 2,000 trouble young people are housed in special accommodation away from their home town because of a lack of care placements.

 

 

A new government funding package will be spent on buying and modernising buildings, equipment and land.

 

The government has announced a £382m funding package for Primary Care Trusts to improve their building stock. The extra money will be spent on buying and modernising buildings, equipment and land. The money is split in to three separate areas:

 

• £167 million allocated directly to PCTs as operational capital to be used to maintain and modernise their building stocks and replace equipment
• £156 million for strategic capital for PCTs to use to fund new equipment and buildings
• £60 million to modernise dental premises and equipment

 

PCTs will be able to chose how they spend the extra money which represents a 30% increase on last year.

This report concerns the out of authority placement of people with special education needs. It aims to help and challenge councils and others involved in meeting complex special needs to plan and commission provision in the most cost-effective way. In particular, it aims to contribute to the delivery of better outcomes for a group of vulnerable children and young people.

This report summarises the first phase of a project being taken forward by the Office for Disability Issues to develop a cross-government information strategy to ensure that disabled people can access good quality information about the services that they need.

The following article appeared in the Observer newspaper:

 

 

Time was when many local authorities provided home helps for free to frail pensioners. Only 3 per cent now do so, and a third have made it harder over the past year for anyone to get help even if they pay, according to a report from the charity Counsel and Care.

In some parts of the country, pensioners deemed wealthy enough must pay up to £315 a week for local authority care in their own home. To afford a sum like this, you would need to have amassed a pension fund, by the age of 60, of about £200,000 along with the state pension. A typical pension fund converted into an annuity is worth just a tenth of that.

Despite the reduction in care provided by the state, it is government policy that the elderly should receive care at home. But it looks as if the situation is about to get worse - for the next five years at least.

Provision of 'social care' will probably get hammered in the Comprehensive Spending Review, due in July. At best, social care budgets will grow with inflation, but since numbers of the elderly are rising, this will mean a cut per head. Junior Health Minister Ivan Lewis is said to be desperately looking for ways to persuade the Treasury to spend more.

People who need care (whether at home or in a residential home) should take advice from organisations such as Age Concern and Counsel and Care on how to get care privately if their council will not pay.

 

Age Concern, www.ace.org.uk 0800 009966

Counsel and Care, www.counselandcare 0845 300 7585

Elderly Accommodation Counsel, www.eac.org.uk 020 7820 1343

Help the Aged, www.helptheaged www.0808 800 6565