User-groups and council in battle over alleged disregard of Care Act duties

A group representing disabled people, Equal Lives, has called on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to investigate Norfolk County Council for “systemic failures and disregarding its statutory duties under the Care Act”.

The local authority disputed the claims and said it would seek a meeting with Equal Lives to talk about the issues raised.

In a complaint to the CQC, the organisation, which represents 50 user-led member groups across Norfolk, argued that the county council had failed to meet its statutory duty under the Act “because of the decision to cut too far and too deeply in 2014/15, the year the Care Act came into being.”

Equal Lives also said disabled people had been left without the support they needed to manage their social care and live independent lives by the decision of county councillors to remove well-being payments from personal budgets and to raise eligibility thresholds in 2014/2015.

This decision had had a “devastating impact” on service users’ lives, Equal Lives said.

The complaint to the CQC claimed that the council had made decisions that contravene the Act and statutory guidance in these areas:

• “Using reviews to make reductions in, or withdrawal of all, support, in ways which are unrelated to changes in need or circumstances;
• Removal of well‐being payments from personal budgets with no alternatives on offer;
• Exclusion of all transport from personal budgets in certain areas of the county;
• Raising of eligibility bar for social care without consultation so that disabled people who previously received services are no longer doing so;
• Restricting choice and control by having exclusive contracts with care agencies which service users have to use;
• Collapsing support planning by putting decision making about who gets an independent support plan in the hands of social workers and managers and then restricting their budgets so they cannot afford to commission them;
• Leaving disabled people without employment advice and support when they employ their own PAs resulting in greater risk and vulnerability. In the last year referrals to Equal Lives showed that 54% of new employers were not getting this support;
• Service users are experiencing cuts of over 50% to their personal budgets and in some cases have all funding removed.”

Equal Lives provided a number of case study examples to back its arguments.

Jonathan Moore, chair of Equal Lives, said: “Well-being runs through the Care Act. For Norfolk to remove these payments without offering alternatives was a reckless decision. This withdrawal of support mandated by law has left many disabled people living as prisoners in their own homes or leading second-class lives compared with the rest of society.”

Mark Harrison, the charity’s CEO, added: “In the year the Care Act came into being, Norfolk County Council cut too far and too deeply, leaving its service users without the basic care as demanded by Parliament.”

The council’s Policy and Resources Committee was due to meet this week (9 February) to discuss making further changes to adult social care over the next three years.

“These cuts would intensify the crisis for disabled and older people and mean the councillors are ignoring their statutory responsibilities under the social care legislation,” Equal Lives claimed.

In response Harold Bodmer, Executive Director for Adult Social Services at Norfolk County Council, said the care the council provided was as set out in the Care Act and it disputed any suggestion that it was not following this.

“However we take the issues raised by Equal Lives very seriously, and have arranged to meet with them to talk about these. It’s important we demonstrate we do things correctly so we will also look again at the individual cases they have raised and I will be commissioning external scrutiny of our processes and reviewing our decision-making to ensure people have access to the right personalised care,” he added.

Bodmer continued: “In light of budget cuts and growing demand, adult social care is under huge pressure. This is not only the case in Norfolk but across the country.

“We’ve restructured every aspect of our department over the past five years in order to make considerable savings and with the clear purpose of minimising the impact of the budget reductions on people who use our services. Indeed, between 2011 and 2014, no money was taken out of the budget for arranging care for individuals and our Promoting Independence Strategy is aimed to support people to have maximum choice and independence.”