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Bristol City Council Budget ‘Efficiencies’ Targets Disability Community

February 11, 2022 Chopsy Baby

Disabled people in Bristol are concerned that targeted ‘savings’ and ‘efficiencies’ in the 2022 – 2023 Budget going to Full Council next week, are thinly veiled ways of making cut-backs to essential services.

Adult Social Care and services for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (Send) both feature in the Mayor’s Budget Recommendations to Council.

Bristol Reclaiming Independent Living (BRIL) are ‘very worried’ about what they are calling ‘major cuts’ in the proposed budget which will affect disabled people’s lives. The group represents Disabled people, people with chronic illness, those with experience of mental illness/distress and neuro-divergent people.

BRIL has released a statement saying: ‘We are concerned that many disabled people are not aware of the cutbacks that are planned. Bristol City Council did not provide specific details of the proposals in the consultation, held over Christmas 2021. This meant that Disabled people, families and social care workers in Bristol did not have enough time or information to respond. They could not know that cuts of more than £11 Million to the adult social care budget were planned, or how they might impact them.’

The group says that Bristol City Council is ‘ignoring their duties to ensure the wellbeing of Disabled adults and children.’ Of particular concern is the fact there will not be any further consultation on planned savings amounting to £1,850,000 on three planned proposals surrounding Direct Payments, a new Continuing Health Care Team and Care Act reviews.

“I feel terrified of the social care budget cuts,” a member of BRIL said. ‘The immediate impact is to reduce my ability to function and make decisions.’

Families of children and young people with Special educational Needs and Disabilities (Send) are also concerned around proposed changes relating to Home To School Transport (HTST). The rising cost of transporting the city’s Send population to education settings has frequently been raised as a concern to Cabinet in the Medium Term Financial Plan.

Papers to this month’s Full Council say there are ‘cost pressures’ relating to HTST due to ‘increased supplier costs, as well as additional SEN assessments, where a proportion of children require transport support, having to travel further due to local capacity issues.’

According to an Equality Impact Assessment, there are 1073 pupils with Send eligible for and receiving HTST, which the council says is an increase of 34 per cent from 2018/19.

The capacity issues relate to a historic planning failure ensuring enough specialist school places in the city, meaning pupils are forced to attend schools miles away in other Local Authorities. It will also include a mop-up job relating to Bristol’s failure to implement the lawful test for Education Health Care Needs Assessments (EHCNA) in 2016, leaving a co-hort of pupils with exacerbated levels of Send due to early intervention and fewer local settings able to meet need.

In 2019, Ofsted and the CQC said that the ‘inconsistencies in the timeliness and effectiveness’ with the council’s identification and assessment of children and young people with Send was a ‘significant weakness’.

The HTST proposal – which the council says ‘does primarily impact children with disabilities’ – will see a new system implemented to ‘increase’ the numbers of contractors at ‘more competitive rates’. This will aim to drive five per cent efficiencies – £284,000 – from third party supply contracts in the system.

But worryingly for families, as part of this, Bristol City Council is also planning to reduce the need for travel by taxi ‘where appropriate’. The council says it is planning to review the support available for independent travel training and co-develop services with parent carers to support ‘greater independence’ travelling to school.

Historic issues with Home to School Transport has seen disabled autistic pupils in Bristol with complex needs being refused transport because they can physically walk, leading to extended non-attendance at school for pupils involved.

Papers say: ‘This does mean that they would come out of taxis and into sustainable transport when they are ready.’ But ‘ready’ according to whom, in an ‘efficiencies’ paper is causing suspicion within the community.

Families are now worried about potential difficulties accessing specialist provision by claims that pupils can walk, public transport or other ‘sustainable’ methods despite having complex needs.

The Equality Impact Assessment also says that the council has a duty to provide HTST where children are re eligible through distance to nearest suitable school, low income, temporary housing or for those in receipt of an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), which does not cover all circumstances in which children eligible for HTST may be provided it.

Further attacks on Disabled people in the budget includes a proposal to save the council £100k a year by stopping a service installing advisory disabled bays outside of residents homes. The scheme allows disabled residents who have no ‘reasonable’ off-street parking the ability to park their vehicles close to their homes through advisory white road markings. If the scheme is to continue, the council is suggesting charging the householder for the cost of installation instead.

The Equality Impact Assessment says that there is ‘some potential’ for those with Blue Badges living in low-income families to be ‘adversely affected’ by the introduction of charges, but that means testing for installation will mean that savings will not be ‘fully realised’.

Full Council will be taking place at 2pm on Tuesday 15 February 2022 at City Hall.