Star date: 13th August 2015

£131,000 CUTS TO SERVICES FOR DISABLED YOUNG PEOPLE WITH MORE TO FOLLOW

This year, Salford Council has already made £131,758 cuts to group based activities for children and young people with disabilities, with more to follow in 2016; while short breaks costs are also `likely to reduce' – partly due, a Council report states, to "A planned review and re-assessment by the social work team of high cost support packages, with the option to put lower cost provision in place..."

All this comes before a consultation on changes to eligibility criteria is even complete...

Full details here...

At the moment, Salford Council is embarking on a consultation with the community regarding Short breaks and funding for disabled children and young people which will change the eligibility criteria for families.

The Council states that the new system will be `fairer', `more consistent' and `more transparent', using a resource allocation questionnaire "that would be completed as part of your child's assessment, which would give your child a score. This score would help to decide the amount of money they would receive".

While the Council goes on about how the new system is about "a desire to modernise our approach in Salford", it appears clear that the Council is expecting many families to lose out. Indeed, in the consultation document there is even a question `What will happen if the money is less than I currently receive? Will my support package be reduced?'

To which the answer is: `Where a new assessment and resource allocation questionnaire indicate that your current support package should be reduced, we'll talk to you and agree a period of time that a gradual reduction will take place. This will allow your child and your family to adjust to a new package'.

Indeed a new report by the Council, produced before the consultation is even concluded in October, considers the scale of `savings', or cuts, in future years. Already, this financial year has seen cuts of £131,758 to group based activities for children and young people with disabilities.

The report adds that "There will be further savings realised over the remainder of the financial year, when group based services are re-commissioned. These will be achieved through developing the market, and looking for efficiencies in service provision and delivery." In other words, by re-assessing young people onto lower levels of care.

Meanwhile, finance for short breaks, or respite care, for young people with disabilities is, states the Council report, "likely to reduce over the year" for reasons including "greater scrutiny of social work assessments...and lower cost alternative services to meet disabled children's needs" and "A planned review and re-assessment by the social work team of high cost support packages, with the option to put lower cost provision in place."

Salford Council has a very strange definition of `modernising'.

Noreen Bailey, of S.E.A.R.C.H. Salford Community Committee told the Salford Star this afternoon that the committee has asked for an emergency meeting with senior officers and John Merry, Assistant Mayor for Young People, to discuss the changes in assessments for young people with disabilities but hadn't even received a reply.

The `savings' to breaks and activities for young people with disabilities come on top of a £1.5million cut to the Council's 0-19 service, a £2.45million cut to its looked after children budget, a £120,000 cut in transport for young people with Special Educational Needs and an increase in fees for Council run nurseries (see previous Salford Star article - click here)

This week, Salford Council announced that it was handing its Salford Stadium company a further £857,500 in loans, while it is borrowing a further £200,000 towards the makeover of Peel Park as part of its match funding for the Heritage Lottery Fund.

*Salford Council's Children With Disabilities Consultation runs until October – to respond and read more details – click here