Social workers: take our survey on the use of funding panels in adults’ services

Community Care wants to hear from adults’ social workers about their experience of funding panels, in response to concerns raised by legal experts and frontline practitioners.

Take our survey here.

Earlier this year, legal expert Luke Clements claimed funding panels were now “rife” among local authorities, but were not being used in line with the Care Act guidance.

The cerebra professor of law at Leeds University cited a decision by the Local Government Ombudsman which questioned whether Brighton and Hove council’s panel was “purely looking at compliance with the Care Act and cost effectiveness” when it rejected a social worker’s recommendations.

One social worker also told Community Care how the introduction of a funding panel had impacted on services for terminally ill patients in her local area.

In March, the ombudsman criticised Bromley council after its panel failed to give a decision for reducing a disabled teenager’s care, leaving the family without support for five months.

More recently, a number of respondents to Community Care’s survey about care package cuts raised concerns about the increasing use of funding panels to make decisions, with some claiming that panels were being used to override social work recommendations.

Take the survey here. The survey is open until Wednesday 13 December.

If you have any questions about the research or would like to speak to us directly, please email communitycare@markallengroup.com, with the subject line FUNDING PANELS SURVEY

The survey will take approximately 10 minutes and can be completed anonymously.