20.01.15
Social care services for the blind cut by half in a decade
In the last nine years the number of blind and partially sighted people receiving social care has almost halved, new research has revealed.
Compiled by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), the ‘Adult Social Care Data: Year ending 31 March 2014, England’ report highlights that for all groups the number of people receiving adult social care services provided or paid for by a local authority has decreased.
For instance in period 2012-13 to 2013-14, the number of adults receiving social care services has fallen by 4%, and there has been a 27% reduction in the total number of people receiving adult social care between 2005-06 and 2013-14.
However, Rose Edwards, the report author and research officer at the RNIB, stated that the reduction in services has been “much greater for blind and partially sighted people than other groups”.
After comparing annual data provided by the National Adult Social Care Information Service, she highlighted that in the past year there has been a 6% reduction in the number of blind and partially sighted people receiving services. In the last nine years, there has been a 47% reduction.
The RNIB report revealed that the reduction in adult social care services is particularly significant because of the reduction in community-based services. It revealed that amongst all service users there has been a 30% reduction in community-based services since 2005-06.
However, once again, this reduction has been greater amongst the blind and partially sighted. Since 2005-06 the number of blind and partially sighted people receiving community-based services has almost halved, with a 49% decrease.
It was noted that with the exception of Direct Payments there have been significant reductions for blind people in all service types.
When looking at the data for the last nine years it was revealed that there are 83% fewer blind and partially sighted people receive meals; 78% fewer receiving professional support; 65% fewer receiving day care; and 45% fewer benefiting from home care.
Rose concluded: “Over the past nine years there has been a continuing trend towards the reduction of adult social care services. Blind and partially sighted people have been particularly impacted by this decline as the reduction in services has been far greater for them than for other groups.
“The number of blind and partially sighted people that receive services has almost halved since 2005 and we can estimate that less than one in ten people that are registered as blind or partially sighted receive social care support.”
PSE has asked the LGA and Department of Health for a comment on the findings, but at the time of publication has received no reply.
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