Kevan Lim

Well today the Evening Star has used my comments about the reduction in Home Care numbers following the conservative changes to the free home care scheme in 2007. Yet amazingly, Graham Newman the conservative executive member for adult care at the county council is claiming its nothing to do with changes they made. In a bizzare quote he says it was the fault of the Labour led county council and changes made in 2003.

Well I think he needs to get his diary out. The conservatives won control of Suffolk County Council in may 2005. According to official figures from the county council, in 2004, 5300 people were receiving home care, went up to 5600 in 2005 with 80% getting it free. In 2006 it had gone up to 5725 with still 80% getting it free.

Then the conservative changed the scheme. Indeed we managed to delay implementation of the ending of the full free home care but it still went ahead in 2008.

And guess what, the numbers dropped in april 2008 to 3523 with only 20% getting it free.

So how could anyone but the conservatives be responsible for the fall in numbers. It would be much more honest if they accepted thats what they had done. As one conservative said at the time. Our priority is the 80% of people who don’t get home care.Today after some efforts I finally got a complete list of the number of people in Suffolk who have been receiving home care from the county council over the last 6 years.

The list provided by the County Council shows a dramatic fall of  firstly over 1500 people who in 2007 stopped taking the service and that increased to over 2000 in 2008.

Why is this significant. Because in 2007 the conservative administration at the county council tightened up the criteria used to assess how much people paid and then in 2008 they removed free home care from the vast majority.

So in 2005 over 5600 were receiving home care with 80% getting it free.  By 2008 the number had dropped to 3500 with 80% paying.

So what’s important about home care.  For me its one of the key services the county council provides. Without it many older people would never be able to get out of bed.  For many its the only person they may see all day.  And as I learnt very recently its the one way of ensuring that a person who wants to, can spend the last years of life at home  and can do so in some sort of dignity.

And what’s even worse is that the numbers of people getting the service should be much higher.  Suffolk has a growing proportion of its population who are classified as elderly.  Based on any reasonable projection of how many people need to use the service, the 5600 in 2005 should have grown to at least 7500 by now.  Which means that thousands of people are not using the service and its clear why.  Because it now costs too much.

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