Service users arranging their own care receive little support, says Denise Platt

People who must fund their own care are being placed in vulnerable positions due to the lack of information on services, the chair of the Commission for Social Care Inspection warned today.

Denise Platt, who was speaking at the launch of the commission’s annual report on the state of social care, said people ineligible for council-funded services had little support in arranging their own care.

The report found increasing numbers of people were having to arrange their own care because councils were tightening eligibility criteria.

Platt said that often councils would simply hand ineligible people a list of services but did not provide them with any advice on how to arrange them or what would best suit their needs.

“People are putting cards in newsagents’ windows saying ‘I would like a bit of help please’ and that’s a very vulnerable situation to be in,” she said.

Platt called on councils to start providing a new service to help people to find the service that they required.

“At the moment people don’t know what’s available, they don’t know what’s value for money and they are not being helped around the system”, Platt concluded.