Southampton City Council (SCC) has employed the outsourcing giant Capita to clear a backlog of annual reviews of its service-users’ care packages, in an apparent attempt to cut costs and help fill a hole in its budget.
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The “pilot project” has so far resulted in an average cut of seven per cent in disabled people’s support packages.
Earlier this year, the Labour-run council was forced to backtrack on controversial plans to force disabled people with high-cost support packages out of their own homes and into residential and nursing institutions.
It had announced plans to review the personal budgets of every disabled person with a package of more than £500 a week, and consider if it would be cheaper to fund them for extra care housing, or nursing or residential care.
But it was forced to scrap the plans after opposition from disabled people, including, one of our members, Spectrum Centre for Independent Living, a user-led organisation which campaigns and provides services in Southampton, and Disabled People Against Cuts.
Sue Bott, deputy chief executive of Disability Rights UK, said:
“It seems extraordinary that Southampton council, who understandably are facing difficulties in balancing their social care budgets, would further compound the problem by spending money on outsourcing the backlog of annual care package reviews.
“If their sole intention is to cut the cost of care packages then, once again, they are skating on thin legal ice.
“Starting a review with the words ‘we have to save money’ is unhelpful and contrary to statutory guidance.
“Rather there should be a genuine conversation about what is needed to live a good life and whether the current package achieves that.”