Kirklees Council: Disabled residents set to lose daily care

The decision proved so controversial that councillors felt it necessary to hire private security guards to protect them as they approved the plans at last month’s budget-setting meeting.

The current situation is that every local authority in the land assesses disabled people’s care needs and places them into one of four categories – “low”, “moderate”, “substantial” or “critical”.

It is then up to individual councils to decide who qualifies for their social care services. In Yorkshire the picture is fairly evenly split between authorities offering care to those with ‘moderate’ needs, and those with a higher threshold of “substantial” and above.

But from April, Kirklees will become the only council in the region to withdraw care even from people with “substantial” needs – defined as those whose lives are not in danger but who are unable to carry out the majority of daily tasks for themselves.

Some 8,000 people will now be reassessed, and families are furious their loved ones may lose their daily care. But the authority says it will invest instead in preventative measures and continue to provide care for the most serious cases.

Council leader Mehboob Kahn said: “We are aware people have been anxious our budget savings disproportionately impact on people with a learning disabilities. However, we currently remain the highest spending authority in Yorkshire on our support for people with learning disabilities.

“Our aim is to help people avoid the need for more complex and expensive care in the future. This is where we are focusing our investment and this is our priority.”

Kirklees residents also face a wave of other cuts as the council reduces spending by £80m by 2014, with the loss of 1,700 jobs.

Youth services will be scaled back and spending on anti-social behaviour and youth offending programmes cut. The Kirklees library service is under review, though the authority says no buildings will close this year. A further £400,000 has been cut from road repairs.