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File on 4: Cut-Price Care

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04/02/2014

Cut-Price Care

BBC Radio 4 - File on 4, Cut-Price Care

Are the old and vulnerable paying the price of cuts in home care?

Councils are driving down the cost of home care, but where does that leave the elderly and vulnerable who rely on it for their daily needs? Fran Abrams investigates.

Ministers have promised a new focus on home care for the elderly and disabled amid concern that 15-minute calls and a low-paid, underskilled workforce are leaving vulnerable people at risk.

From this Spring, inspectors will ask how councils' commissioning practices are affecting the daily lives of those they care for. But with authorities under pressure simultaneously to cut costs, will quality continue to suffer?

Fears have been mounting about whether the basic needs of vulnerable people are being met. The government's human rights watchdog has been pressing the issue, along with tax officials who say many companies are breaching minimum wage legislation.

This week File on 4 reports on the results of its own survey of local authorities in England. Have councils increased spending to keep pace with inflation in the past few years, or have they actually driven down costs? And are they providing even the most basic level of resources that social service chiefs say are needed to keep those in their care safe and well? 

Reporter: Fran Abrams
Producer: Emma Forde.

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