This blog will be taking a small break over Christmas and New Year. Still available for short-post abuse and interaction on twitter @hangbitch.

Before we go, though – a special mention for Dave, Gideon and the Boy Wonder Clegg for setting civilisation back 500 years in 2011. The coalition’s annihilation of local government grants has destroyed council-run services and leaves a whole class of people (ie – anyone who can’t pay for the services that councils once provided) adrift, and probably for dead in some cases.

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The losses

I’ve had the dubious privilege of seeing the coalition’s cuts handiwork up close this year, right around the country as I’ve talked to people dealing with the loss of vital local services. There’s a brief retrospective with excerpts from of some of those interviews below.

The service-provision remit for councils is (or has been) enormous. Not everyone will know that councils provide a very wide range of essential services, or that a great many of these services have disappeared, or have been compromised, as this year’s cuts have taken hold.

Councils provide adult social care (which this post focuses on) – a huge service which includes homecare for the elderly and people with disabilities, residential care for people in those groups, sheltered housing with onsite wardens for the elderly, daycentres for the elderly, daycentres for people with physical disabilities, learning disabilities and dementia, and services like meal on wheels. These services are disappearing at a time when the population is ageing.

Councils provide supported-living accommodation (staffed hostels) for people with severe mental health difficulties – these hostels are (or were – some have closed) essential for people who need somewhere to go when they leave hospital after treatment for severe mental illness (that group is growing, too). Without supported-living hostels, people will have fewer places to go, unless you count appalling, unstaffed B&Bs, or the side of the road.

The excerpts below are just a few takes from a few interviews by one journalist. The true scale of the devastation is enormous. Unfortunately, it’s just not been reported widely enough. Local government cuts have only been covered sporadically by the mainstream press. There have been stories about specific service closures here and there, and I understand that one film company is producing a piece on this year’s cuts at Stoke, but in general, the slaughter has taken place below the radar. That is in itself a kind of travesty. The death of this all-important layer of the public sector should near the top of any big media agenda, especially since there is worse to come. There are years of these cuts ahead. The impact on anyone who can’t afford to pay for services like care will be appalling.

Excerpts:

A journey round austerity Britain (New Left Project):

Cambridgeshire: “I meet Tracy and Stuart Evenden – as I meet a lot of people these days – at a small anti-cuts protest outside a town hall in a bitter January wind. The Evendens are at this protest because they’re trying to fight a Cambridgeshire county council decision to reduce resources available to the special unit (called CSSC-EOTAS) that their 15-year-old son attends. They’re worried and they look it: tense, tired faces and a quivering chin and red eyes in Tracy’s case (which is probably the cold as well as the stress – she says she’s freezing).

“EOTAS caters for children who are unable to cope in the mainstream. Some have problems with their physical health, some with mental health and some with emotional health. The Evenden’s son attends EOTAS because he was bullied so viciously by students at his mainstream school that he started to go under. It seems that by the time he was 11, his terror was destroying the family. The move to the EOTAS unit, with its expert staff and supervision, pushed that horror into the past. Now, of course, it is back again. The council’s plan is to return these refugees from the mainstream to the mainstream.”

Shropshire: The closing of the Grange daycentre for people with physical disabilities (Guardian):

“In December, Shropshire council announced that it planned to close the centre as part of its austerity measures – an early decision which shocked service users, who thought that they were in the middle of consultation about the centre, rather than at the end of it. They had been told a decision about the centre’s future wouldn’t be made until January. Local campaigners have spent the six months since then trying to beat the council back, but the council still plans to shut the Grange at the end of July.

“[Centre user] Eddie Davies says… that for all the promises the council has made about replacing the Grange with a like-for-like service, he is losing half his support hours and has only been offered a group in a church as a replacement. He is an older man and had formed close friendships at the Grange. The thought of change does not appeal to him: “We won’t have the same groups that we did at the Grange.”

Video: Users at the Grange talk about the loss of their daycentre:

Gateshead: (The Daily Maybe)

“I’m in a room in Gateshead with about 15 older women at a Personal Growth – Take Individual Steps session (known as PG Tips here at the Tyneside women’s health centre). I wouldn’t describe the group, or the session, as a touchy-feely waste of public money and focus, although I imagine George Osborne would without looking round the door.

“…A lot of the women in this room collect incapacity benefit – a means of drawing income which the Murdoch stable would have us believe is leapfrogging politics and pimping to top the list of pestilent ways to source a buck. Not that these women will be sourcing income through incapacity for long. Their days of drawing incapacity (and perhaps any) benefit are numbered. Incapacity is being phased out, along with any notion of genuine need. Everyone who collects incapacity is being assessed for fitness for work. They’re being moved to the smaller job seekers’ allowance, or to the employment support allowance if they’re deemed to need support to work. Some will be found ineligible for support altogether.

Nobody I’ve spoken to likes their chances. I’ve even met rightwingers who are worried about assessment. Only ten days ago, I interviewed a physically disabled woman called Mel Richards who felt that the coalition (which she generally supported) was wilfully failing to recognise people she referred to as “deserving poor.” She insisted that her good work record and national insurance contributions entitled her to support when illness struck (and was technically correct – incapacity benefit recipients must generally have paid national insurance).”

Middlesbrough: the closing of the Breckon Hill centre

“…The centre has a daycentre for adults with disabilities, an accredited ESOL training programme, back-to-work support for people who are looking for jobs, computer classes, a youth club, a cafe with affordable meals and so on…[it’s a vital place for] people with learning and physical disabilities, worried locals whose cafes and takeaways are going bust in the slump [and need retraining], youth offenders who want work experience on projects (that were once) funded by council, discarded public sector workers who want to retrain for jobs that don’t exist….

“Between 400 to 800 people come through the doors of this centre in any given week. They prize it highly and need it badly, so naturally, it is due for closure. The centre is – perhaps ironically, or perhaps not, in these plotless times – a victim of its own popularity in a roundabout way. The loss of direct council funding isn’t the problem – the centre does not, as manager Amanda Buck tells me, rely on a council grant to keep and manage its buildings. It relies on room-hire income that it makes from community and council groups that rely on council funding. Those groups are losing their funding, which means the centre is losing a vital income stream.

“Nobody’s got the budget to hire the rooms out, so we’ve had a decrease in staff and a decrease in grants available to the facility – even though we’ve had a 38% increase in people requiring our services.”

“Lottery provided some funding for six years, but the centre trust doesn’t expect that funding to continue forever and is paying Amanda’s salary out of reserves. The government cut the Future Jobs Fund last year – that paid for a staff member and work placements for young people keen for employment…Middlesbrough has the worst jobless rate in the country (a prize it takes in a competitive field).”

Photos of service users at the Breckon Hill centre in Middlesbrough by deptfordvisions.com

Lancashire: parents of children with disabilities face care cuts and closure of short-break respite units (Guardian)

“Lancashire county…is consulting parents of children with disabilities about plans to close some of the county’s short breaks units. The units give parents much-needed breaks from caring, and children a chance to socialise.

“The plans to close units could impact on families such as Colin and Jennifer Dalley’s. They have three daughters with learning disabilities and behavioural problems, all needing supervision and support. The youngest, Kirsty, 11, needs constant care and monitoring, because she has severe epilepsy. She has an adapted bed and bathroom.

The Dalleys are full-time carers, and they struggle with isolation and exhaustion. Both have been treated for depression over the years. They manage the children, the behavioural problems (their eldest is prone to aggressive outbursts), transport, equipment, relationships with social workers, endless correspondence with the council, journeys to and from school, doctors and so on. They’re also employers – they use direct payments to manage two carers who help the family before and after school, and take Kirsty out on weekends.

They get a break when Kirsty goes to a short break unit for overnight stays. Kirsty spends several nights a month at Maplewood House – a residential unit with adapted beds, bathrooms, a playroom, a sensory room and professional staff. With Kirsty at Maplewood, “you get to sleep”, says Colin. “You have a night when you’re not worried … because obviously, with her epilepsy, when she’s here, you’re always worried.” He says he accepts “some cuts have to happen”, but that he didn’t expect short breaks units to be targeted.”

Lancashire: new, stricter criteria round eligibility for adult social care (False Economy):

“One elderly Lancashire parent of a severely disabled adult man uses a pseudonym in interviews because he’s concerned about [angering Lancashire county council if he complains about cuts].

“His son, who is now nearly 30, has cerebral palsy and needs round-the-clock care. He can’t move, or speak. He is fed through a stoma and tube.

“His care is organised through Lancashire council and the NHS. But adult social care at Lancashire is harder than ever to come by. This year, Lancashire tightened eligibility criteria for adult care. Only service users in the “substantial” or “critical” fair access to care bands are eligible for paid-for care now. People with “moderate” needs have to finance care themselves. The council is reassessing nearly 4000 people to decide which category they belong in. In September, council officers told me that the council had reviewed just 100 cases since July.

Everyone else waits in fear. The man with the pseudonym has been waiting for his son’s review – and to find out what services he can negotiate – for a year. He describes the council’s snail’s pace as “cuts by default. [The council] has learned not to just shut things. That gets bad publicity. Now, it is letting everything run down without actually closing anything.”

Hammersmith and Fulham: the closure of supported-living hostels for people with severe mental health difficulties (Guardian):

“Hammersmith and Fulham council’s cabinet [has] decided to close the 14-unit Tamworth hostel, make all staff redundant and sell the building. The council said alternative accommodation would be found for the hostel’s eight residents. The council’s rationale for closure was a Supporting People fund contribution towards a £300,000 austerity saving. Selling the building would be a nice little earner.

“Things aren’t looking as bright for those in the hostel, though. Inside, you find angry, soon-to-be-unemployed staff, concerned residents and a sort of muted, but palpable, sense of calamity…

“High-level supported-living housing is a unique service. Experienced staff monitor residents’ medication and keep and eye on drug and alcohol use. They arrange transfers, community activities and help residents organise appointments. The Tamworth hostel building is secure and always staffed. Many have worked here for years – a contribution that means little in our austerity age. Council reports dismiss their expertise and concerns: “Although there was some opposition to the proposal from the staff, the consultation did not present any strong arguments for keeping Tamworth open,” stated authors of the council’s March cabinet report on the closure. Spinning to reassure, the report’s authors insisted that Tamworth residents would be catered for: “evidence demonstrates that there is sufficient provision for the client group in the borough’s other mental health supported housing”.

“Visits to the hostel revealed a different narrative. It emerged that two of Tamworth’s residents were to be moved to accommodation out of the borough. One of Tamworth’s occupants still had nowhere to go. Aged 47, she has schizophrenia and is an alcoholic. She has been living at Tamworth for five years. Temporary accommodation had been discussed, but she felt she’d be vulnerable there. She’s physically small, often confused and unwell. People prey on her. She knows this because she’s lived in low-level support accommodation before. “People take my money from me, don’t they? I would hand it to them. They would take my money for drugs.”

Camden: the closure of daycentres for people with mental health difficulties, learning disabilities and dementia (False Economy).

“I meet Susan Gates [name changed], a furious Camden mental-health service user, at a packed and dismal public council “consultation” meeting in early October. I’ve been to a great many meetings and protests like this in the last year. This one’s in Kentish Town library.

Like many in the room, Susan is here to register her upset at Camden council plans to close and sell support centres for people with mental health difficulties, dementia, learning disabilities and sensory disabilities.

The council wants to use cash generated from sales to build a single building on a self-funding, mixed-use site (there’ll be private flats and business space for rent and sale) at Greenwood Place in Kentish Town…

Audience members like Susan are convinced that the council has already decided to close and sell their centres, even though councillors deny it. “We haven’t made any decisions!” council cabinet member for adult social care Pat Callaghan responds – a statement somewhat negated by the thick, glossy brochure that councillors circulate to promote their plans.

Susan is a long-time (about 14 years) user of Highgate – one of the threatened centres. It’s a small, staffed service which offers groups and social support for people with mental health difficulties. Susan suffers from severe depression. She is hospitalised during bad episodes. For her, Highgate is familiar, unthreatening and essential. “I couldn’t cope without it.”

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Those are just a few examples from this first year.

In 2012, I’ll be travelling around the country again to talk to service users and providers as budget cuts for the second year are made. It is not at all heartening to know that 2011 was just the start.