Seven in ten (69 per cent) people with a learning disability had their social care cut when they needed it most, leaving many stuck in lockdown.
That’s according to a survey of family carers by charity Mencap.
Needs increased during the pandemic
The charity asked 1,069 people across the UK about their experiences of caring for someone with a learning disability during the crisis.
More than two-thirds (67 per cent) said their loved one’s needs have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic..
But cuts to day services, personal care in the home and respite for carers had a devastating impact on people with a learning disability and their families.
It has left many of them still in lockdown, despite the easing of official restrictions.
Depressing picture
The survey paints a depressing picture for families facing the threat of another possible lockdown.
It reveals that a lack of social care support during this crisis has negatively impacted people with a learning disability in a number of ways.
These include their mental health (69 per cent), relationships (73 per cent), physical health (54 per cent) and independence (67 per cent), according to family carers.
Mencap said it has heard from families whose loved ones with a learning disability were previously independent and confident. Since local authorities took their support away, they have lost their life skills.
Family carers pushed to the brink
Caring for someone around the clock while day services are closed and respite hours are cut has taken a shocking toll on the wellbeing of family carers.
More than half (52 per cent) of family carers said they have struggled to cope with supporting their loved one during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Three-quarters say the situation has been detrimental to their own mental health (75 per cent), relationships (60 per cent) and their physical health (61 per cent).
Fear of further cuts
Many families say they fear that cash-strapped local councils will make further cuts as lockdown eases.
Almost three-quarters (72 per cent) of family carers surveyed worry that there will be more cuts to care packages.
Some have report that their loved ones’ day support services have already been forced to close for good during lockdown.
Financial pressures
Figures from a series of Freedom of Information requests to local authorities in England make sombre reading. They demonstrate the extent of financial pressures in social care for people with a learning disability even before coronavirus hit.
The figures show at least 2,459 working-age adults with a learning disability had the support hours in their care package reduced in 2018/19.
But Mencap estimates that, factoring in all local authorities, this could have been more than 7,000 people. This equates to around one in 20 people with a learning disability who receive social care.
Edel Harris is chief executive of Mencap. She said: “Social care has had decades of under-investment, and we have been warning about the system being at breaking point for years – but here are clear signs that the system has broken and people with a learning disability and their families are paying the price.
“Social care needs significant investment now and a bold plan for reform in the future. People with a learning disability and their families must not be left behind in lockdown.”
Mencap has launched a petition calling on the Treasury to invest in social care: www.mencap.org.uk/socialcarepetition.
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- Councils ‘free to abandon disabled’
- Coronavirus may decimate services
- Children’s social care ‘in crisis’
- Social care cash won’t end crisis
- Care slashed in Warwickshire and Surrey
Published: 7 October 2020
