A new study by the Shared Data Unit and BBC Wales has looked into the extent of the social care crisis in the UK, but the Isle of Wight Council has refused to provide any data.
More than a decade after a crucial report found the sector had become a ‘postcode lottery’ of provision, the study finds large disparities still exist.
Research has found that, while patients can be assessed on the same day as a referral in some local authorities, the average wait is over a month in a third of the UK.
As part of a wide-ranging study, evidence has been found of a domiciliary care system – where people receive help in their own home – in trouble. More than 13,000 home-care packages were handed back to councils over the past 2 years – largely because companies lacked the staffing capacity to fulfil them.
But the Isle of Wight Council has refused to provide data relating to both wait times and the number of contracts handed back locally, so the picture on the Isle of Wight is unclear – and presumably not good.
Freedom of Information requests were sent to every local authority in the UK.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson has said:
“Overall, waiting lists for care have reduced and there are more people working in social care. But there is more to do, which is why we’re providing up to an additional £7.5 billion for social care over the next two years – including £1.4 billion to help reduce adult social care waiting times, increase workforce capacity and retention as well as increase fee rates paid to adult social care providers.
Article continues below this advertisement “The workforce is at the centre of our ‘Next Steps to Put People at the Heart of Care’ plan and we’re investing up to £250 million for the development the skills of the workforce. This is on top of our Made with Care domestic recruitment campaign and a £15 million boost for recruitment of overseas care workers.”
UPDATE TUESDAY – An Isle of Wight Council spokesperson has today said:
“Following press reports rising from the BBC Local Democracy Shared Data Unit, we wish to clarify we did not refuse to provide data.
“Under the FOI guidelines, we advised the requester that much of the information sought was not available to us without an extensive and costly manual review of each care record (exceeding 18 hours). There is no automated way to calculate the information requested and to provide the information sought we would have had to allocate resources to undertake a manual review of each case record.
“The BBC did not respond to our offer of help in refining the requests to enable us to provide a response.
“For each provider of domiciliary care with whom we contract, we hold data relating to their current levels of provision, the demand for their services and their available capacity. At a personal data level, we hold information that identifies the individual care and support needs and how these will be met.
“We work closely with providers to ensure care and support needs for local people can be met as quickly as possible and our contracting model provides a degree of flexibility for local providers to work together to ensure local need is met as efficiently as possible.
“While we do experience challenges in both recruitment and retention of the local home care/domiciliary care workforce, Island providers and commissioners work hard to ensure this impacts as little as possible on local people. In addition to the commissioned offer, we have our own in-house team providing domiciliary care and reablement in peoples own homes. The team are also able to provide short term emergency care and support where this is required.”
This shambolic lot that call theirselves councillor’s !!!!
Don’t know the meaning of freedom of information, because that would mean telling the truth, look at the cover up re the heap of junk (non floating bridge)….
And then the island is sinking with all the new unaffordable builds , which means more health care needed etc etc…
Say it again infrastructure infrastructure …
Alas it falls on deaf ears !!!
Obviously the statistics are a lot worse than we could possibly imagine… Just release the information, at least then, in theory, the only way is up!!
Surely this lack of response for the FOI is something Bob Seely should be investigating.
It is our right as residents to be allowed this information.
(Yes, I will write to him and request he looks into it)
Well done Truthsout let see if Pop Up Bob does anything, other than photo ops .. but I think those who want to know why !! Will be disappointed.. the IWC do not recognise the FOI rules and regs, so let them suffer .
The concern is the short sighted attitude of the Council and Government on this crisis.
Their flawed and proven failure method is to bring in more care workers from overseas.
A quick cure BUT several serious problems then are created.
They will EVENTUALLY age themselves thus adding to the future burden
They and numerous dependants will all require a home costing FAR more than their taxes will EVER fund in a lifetime
The elderly often find British hard to understand if deafness has started so little hope with foreign tongue workers
Problem is too many parents are better off NOT working or working just 16 hrs a week and claiming state aid.
This is why we have staff shortages
HMG need to cut tax credit
I am fed up of overseas care workers. It will be the straw that finally breaks the camels back. I don’t see social care lasting for much longer. As it stands, why NOT keep hiring our own country’s workers? Service users have a lot of trouble understanding agency staff with nigerian accents.
The importation of workers is all fine and dandy UNTIL they too see they have exactly the same rights as the idle locals and then they too have a child or several and then only work 20 hours a week or not at all.
Then we have to import ever more to make up the lack of hours worked
Thus more houses more non indigenous whose offspring hate us for as they see using their parent as slave labour.
Have we learnt nothing from thinking more imms are the answer.
Get our muvvers out the nail bars & working
The more that retire here, the greater the need for full disclosure on our care status and funding……Are we funding for the rest of the Country and not being subsidised??
I would say the refusal to grant the FOI is, to say the least, highly suspicious.
We, Council Tax Payers, have endured year-on-year increases for more and more service reductions, and yet, over the last few years, additional funds have been granted and, or at least, should have been, ring-fenced for Adult Social and other care.
So, IoW Council, why the refusal to respond to the FOI?
There’s something nasty in the woodshed here!!
It’s a social catastrophe happening right now.
IW Council are a disgrace, they should be forced to
provide the Data.
Let’s not forget they are meant to be working for us,
it is us who pay their wages.