Community Care Services Users

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the primary characterisation of community care, as outlined by the government white paper 'Caring for People', is people whose needs extend beyond health care to include social care and support, which they cannot arrange for themselves. The author points out that, given that statutory benefits are routinely claimed to be inadequate for the provision of disabled social care, increased pressure is placed upon the families of disabled people. The paper argues that direct funding from Westminster is inadequate to cope with increasing demands at the local level; whilst a case also could be made for asserting that local authority ineptitude is at fault for not using public money in the most effective way.

Table of Contents:
Welfare Benefits Available to Disabled People
The Potential Financial Implications of Having Social Care Needs
Charging Community Care Services Provision Policies and the Impact of the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990

From the Paper:

"A further group within society that suffers the financial implications of social care needs are the elderly. It is an inevitable result of a population living longer than ever, with better access to, and superior quality of health provision than ever before that there arises a serious question of how support and social care for elderly members of the community is paid for. Consecutive British governments have battled with this issue, however there appears to be little possibility of reversing the trend that has increasingly seen elderly people forced to use life savings and property assets to financially support their social care needs in their old age."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Disability Benefits Now: Making Life Easier (2005) Disability Allowance and Attendance Allowance Self Assessment and Information Centre, http://www.benefitsnow.co.uk, Date accessed 11/4/06.
• Lewis, G (2003) Difference and Social Policy. In N.Ellison and C.Pierson (Ed) Developments in British Social Policy 2 (pp. 90-106). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Oliver, M. (1996) Understanding Disability: From Theory to Practice, London: Macmillan Press Ltd.
• Priestly, M (1999) Disability Politics and Community Care, London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers Ltd.
• Sharkey, P (2000) The Essentials of Community Care: A Guide for Practitioners, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

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