People who receive care are missing out on emergency social care funding promised by the Scottish Government, according to carers organisations.

Colin Millar, of the Scottish Personal Assistants Employers Network, told healthandcare.scot “There’s been two huge commitments amounting to £100m, but certainly the people we are talking to, the service users, the front-end people are saying: ‘We’ve not seen a penny’.

“It’s tied up in a bureaucratic system somewhere.”

In some cases people with support needs have had their care reduced during the pandemic – but been unable to use some of the left over budget to organise alternative help.

Extra cash in the form of two £50m packages was pledged for the social care sector – the first in May and the second at the beginning of August.

The funding was to be used to cover additional costs and drops in income caused by covid-19.

Just before the first £50m was announced, Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said it was “not acceptable” for councils to reduce care because the government would meet additional costs.

But Shubhanna Hussain-Ahmed, Partnership Development Officer at the Coalition of Carers in Scotland, says many people with support needs and their carers feel forgotten.

She explains many services were disrupted because of the virus, but payments to providers continued to stop them going bust.

When service users tried to organise alternative support, often they were told no funding was available.

There are also concerns that non-profit care providers are yet to see large chunks of the funding, three months on from the first announcement.

Mr Millar described a spike in the number of people phoning his organisation early on in the pandemic seeking alternative sources of care as local authority led or care agency led care was reduced.

He says they have been contacted by people who had requests refused either for a direct payment from their care budget or a reallocation of some of their self-directed support budget to purchase alternative forms of support to replace their usual care.

Some were told by their local authority during lockdown that their individual care budgets could not be reallocated without a social care assessment.

He told healthandcare.scot: “The end users are saying: ‘I’m left without care, I’m left without alternatives, where’s the money gone?’”

The Coalition of Carers says some of the additional funding should be going to people on the frontline.

“People with support needs and unpaid carers have (quite rightly) felt ignored during this pandemic,” says Ms Hussain-Ahmed. 

“There has been an assumption that they would just have to get on with it as they were not deemed a ‘priority’ by many of the local Health and Social Care Partnerships.

“We have heard from so many of these individuals and families who have struggled to get through these past few months with very little additional support or respite, and we also know that it is only a matter of time before many of them have a complete break down or burn out.”

Under self-directed support, people are supposed to have more control over their choice of care, including in some cases taking on a personal budget to spend on services.

But last month a survey found only one in five unpaid carers had been given flexibility over support choices during the pandemic.

In response, a Scottish government spokesperson said local authorities should not be “constrained” by previous practice:

“We know how valuable flexibility is for people who use social care, particularly as people’s usual supports may not be available at the moment because of staff absence or the changes required for infection prevention and control.

“We are aware of some very creative social care supports provided during this period. We have issued guidance supporting authorities to enable people use their budgets in new ways and have made clear to local authorities that they should act to do what is right to deal with the virus, and not be constrained by previous practice.”

The spokesperson added work was ongoing with IJBs and COSLA to decide how the second tranche of £50m should be allocated.

 

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