By Ramaa Sharma
The council is proposing to cut services it provides adults in need of care and the elderly. If the new proposals materialise 1 in 3 people in the borough who are currently eligible would lose out.
Redbridge's Adult Social Services provide various care packages to the people with learning difficulties, the disabled and the elderly in the borough.
These include services like Meals on Wheels and visits to day care centres. But, if new money saving proposals go ahead this sort of support could be a thing of the past for at least 35% of people who receive it.
Cllr Nolan said: "Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any other option ... we've looked at closing day centres and cutting back on staff....and we've done that...we've cut back nearly a million pounds worth of staff savings so you can imagine we are really at the bone."
Comments from Readers:
The people who will lose services are precisely those who benefit so much from so little input at the moment. For instance, the people who are unable to live independently and MUST live with others, fall into the 'lesser substantial' category and will lose vital services. This does not make any sense.
Social inclusion is so important and something that should be nurtured and helped to grow. These proposals will have the effect of socially isolating many, causing much hardship, stress, loneliness, and mental health problems. (Frankie Inglis)
Deborah Pearce has written to Redbridge Council
I am writing to you as Leader Redbridge Council, and my ward councillors, to express my utter disgust at the proposed changes to the eligibility criteria for Adult Social Services.
Redbridge residents are being led to believe that there are insufficient council funds to pay for services for vulnerable groups of people however I read in the local press that we to are to gain an Olympic sized swimming pool and I cannot remember how much this will cost but it is an obscene amount of money and yet we are looking at losing basic services that some of the most vulnerable people in the borough need just to try and get by. I also read that we are to have some sort of piazza in Central Ilford another waste of money when there are insufficient funds to provide basic services to residents. PLEASE lobby your national political allies and urge them to increase the amounts that central government allocates to Redbridge - as carers and services users we just do not have the energy to keep fighting a system which does not appear to want or value us!!!
SOURCE: BBC
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The provision of services for the vulnerable elderly, or people with disablility, appears to be very low on the priority list of the Council. An olympic-sized swimming pool and a piazza, obviously are more important than the wellbeing of the elderly and the disabled. UNREAL!
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