Councillors were kept in the dark as Brighton and Hove City Council clawed back cash from the families of children with disabilities.
Some parents spoke out after belatedly receiving letters from the council giving them little or no notice that “surplus money” would be taken from their accounts.
The letter said that any sum greater than six weeks’ worth of “direct payments” would go back to the council for “redistribution”.
The money was paid to families to fund vital help, including respite care and personal assistants. Some families had been setting aside money for these needs and others had struggled to find the help that they needed.
After the Local Democracy Reporting Service revealed the clawbacks, Green councillor Hannah Allbrooke, who chairs the council’s Children, Young People and Skills Committee, said that she knew nothing about the decision.
Councillor Allbrooke said: “The policies and procedures used with the distribution of direct payments for both adults and children were last updated in 2016 when Labour ran the council.
“The council uses a national procedure on the basis of the law and does not have any local policy. This decision to adopt new procedures in 2016 was not presented to councillors at the time.
“I was not aware of the letters being sent to families regarding direct payments and I was disappointed to hear about the concerns relating to them.
“When the issue was brought to my attention, I asked council staff to reflect on what had happened and issue an apology.
“I am pleased that this apology was given and that council staff have given me their commitment that they will learn from this to prevent unnecessary upset for families in future.
“Although surplus funds from direct payments have been reclaimed in previous years for both adults and children, it is clear that the sensitivity of the current financial situation was not recognised.
“The communication was issued too late and didn’t address the families’ worries about the cost of living crisis. This will be learnt from in future.
“A policy is also in development which will make it clear both to people who receive direct payments and councillors how they will be managed.
“Council officers will also meet with the Parent Carers’ Council (PaCC) to understand the concerns of families which will be used to inform the policy and any future action.
“Any parents who have raised concerns will also be written to by council staff to resolve any outstanding issues.”
The council’s apology, issued on Thursday 10 November, said that there was no intention to leave any families out of pocket. Parents were invited to get in touch to find ways of resolving any problems.
The council said: “Our intention was to warn people in advance of the withdrawals. It is very unfortunate that letters sent to families informing them of the planned withdrawal of surplus funding appear to have been delayed. We believe this must have been due to postal strikes.”
Families received letters dated Saturday 15 October on Friday 28 October telling them that any surplus cash would be taken from their accounts.
One mother, who asked not to be identified, said that she had left four messages for her direct payments manager since receiving the letter but had yet to receive a response.
Her child has complex needs and the sum that the council said that she would have left in her direct payments account would total less than two weeks’ money rather than six.
She said: “To date, the funds are still there. But it’s causing me tremendous stress and anxiety wondering when they’ll take it and what I’ll ultimately be left with.
“I worry that I will no longer be able to pay for my PA and my after-school and holiday clubs. I am using that money.”
Conservative councillor Vanessa Brown and Labour councillor Jackie O’Quinn said that they were waiting to speak to executive director Deb Austin about the decision.
Councillor Carmen Appich, joint leader of the Labour opposition, said: “I had no idea that this was happening and I and my colleagues were clearly not briefed about this decision.
“I will leave it to those who made the decisions to comment on the detail or the rationale for making the decision, though I can confirm that there is a huge problem with council finances up and down the country, not just here in Brighton and Hove.”
The Labour MP for Hove, Peter Kyle, said that he would raise the matter with ministers in Parliament.
What a surprising article. The “Greens” treating the Disabled badly? But that is so unlike them… (/Sarcasm mode…)
I thought councillors were supposed to know what the council staff were doing and to control it – not just hope to get told, but proactively question what’s being done and correct as necessary. Clearly councillors are not experts on everything involved with running a place but if something seems wrong they should be investigating. Or are they too busy with their own projects and do I expect too much?
Such a worrying state of affairs when councilors have no control over officers, (or seem to know what they are even doing). Look at the home to school transport fiasco (which cost us millions), look at the recent closure of Gardner Street, (where officers DID NOT include an independent report they commissioned by Mott Mcdonald), look at the closure of Madeira Drive, (where those with disabilities could not access the changing places facility). This paints the Green Administration in a very poor light because either they do not care or they are unware as to the needs of some of the cities most vulnerable, (granted Labour don’t look great at times as well)
Everyone in receipt of direct payments was told that because of problems with finding personal assistants during covid that any growth in the funds an individual had would not be taken away. This is really shocking news to hear that this has now gone back on – because we are in the middle of a care crisis where it is really difficult to find personal assistants and carers to employ, but we still need the jobs doing. Disabled people need this direct payment money, we are entitled to it and our lives will be minimised if we don’t have this ability to catch up on much needed tasks. There is a promise that we could keep our direct payment money, so why are they going back on their promise. It’s very difficult being disabled and the council, yet again, are pulling the rug from under our feet. Green councillors are in charge, it is not good enough for them to say they don’t know what’s going on. It is their job to be on top of all of this, and not plead ignorance. There’s all sorts of claims that the council and the Green Party are making that they are disability aware but this is another example of them just kicking these claims into the ground. I’m really angry on behalf of the people involved and they must be panicking as there’s no way to get around it because I say again the current care crisis means it’s incredibly hard to find people to employ. This needs to be reversed and stopped from going further and including other groups of people with disabilities who have direct payments. We are all assessed to a high degree as needing direct payments, so what are they playing at.
Crocodile tears from poor dear Hannah . Everybody knows what the Greens think about the disabled. (Can she do a Tik Tok video about it?)
It’s the second time the Council’s Childrens Disabilities Team have taken my child’s funding back. The first time they did it they didn’t even let me know. It was 8 months into COVID and we were a shielding family because of my child’s complex medical needs. We couldn’t find a PA who wasn’t working in a classroom, so couldn’t spend the funds. I asked that the money be left alone so we could try to find someone to give us a block of respite once it was safe to do so. But they just took it anyway. As for Councillor Appich / she needs to understand that this money is provided in line with the Care Act and Government guidance as a support to families. Her comment implies that it’s ok to raid the most vulnerable young citizen’s accounts to make up a shortfall. With that attitude we’ll end up with more children in residential care which costs upwards of £200k and families get broken when their child is miles away. Out of sight, vulnerable and with Family unable to keep them safe. The whole point of Direct Payments is to support families and the young people so they don’t fall apart. If the Council agreed a proper wage for this essential Keyworker role of PA it would be a start. But until they recognise the skills of PAs, School TAs and Vehicle Passenger Assistants on the Home School Transport, we’ll be stuck without the support and it’s the children and their families who suffer. When was the last time any of the Councillors visited one of our city’s special schools? When was the last time they spoke with families who need the support of Direct Payments but can’t recruit skilled PAs for a 4 hr a week stint when they will be paid at less than they could earn working in a supermarket? It’s time our Councillors started to challenge these decisions and got more involved. We have a good Parent Carer Forum in the PaCC. It’s time Councillors started to get involved and attend coffee mornings and PaCC Forums to meet and listen to families – and demand that Officers follow democratic process and bring these sort of considerations to Committee. Every child/young person affected by this is protected under The Equalities Act. Not that Councillors seem to even understand what that means. They need to step up because our Social Care system is in crisis,
Typical response. No one wants to assume any responsibility. They are claiming the money will go to those in need, but our disabled loved ones are the ones in need! Taking money from the disabled, during a cost-of-living crisis, is nothing short of grotesque. What kind of party are the Greens to support this? This is predatory and discriminatory. The council will not hear the last of this if those funds are taken. Some of us will seek legal advice–and action.
Children’s Services approach to children with disabilities is not fit for purpose. There are virtually no services available to families (or services that are so minimal, most families cannot gain access) so we are offered direct payments services through personal assistants. The problem is this is based on a ridiculously low hourly rate that no PAs will accept, and even more so during the current social care crisis. Families have funds to use but no way to spend the money (also because of the restrictions imposed by the Council). The Council then takes the money away from us but, on paper, they look to be providing a service when they are not. All the while, children with disabilities have none of the care and support services they are assessed as requiring. This needs urgent attention but no one is willing to acknowledge the problem. Officers blame Councillors for setting the low rate. We are told we can take a cut in hours (that children have been assessed as NEEDING) to top up the pay rate or need to pay out of pocket (which many families cannot afford and no mechanism exists for means-testing). Their approach to us is bullying – telling us it is our problem that we cannot recruit and that they are taking away any underspend.
As a parent carer of a disabled child with complex needs I absolutely reiterate what the above parent carer has said. It is no wonder its impossible to find PA’S to look after out very vulnerable children when the hourly rate is so terribly low and nowhere near reflects the skills and qualities required for looking after the city’s most vulnerable residents. We had our money clawed back after covid – this was despite me asking to use it for 1:1 respite PA hours instead of the less expensive holiday respite provision my child usually uses. I wanted the 1:1 PA instead to reduce the risk of covid transmission to my vulnerable child- and I was told no – there was apparently no risk to my child in a group setting (despite social distancing and shielding guidance still being in place nationally!) And si i was told i couldn’t use the excess funds that had built up in his fund to pay for this respite- despite there being funds there and despite us having had no school, therapies, and respite from caring for 5 months. As pointed about parent carers like us really need support and respite to enable us to keep getting up each day and carrying on caring for our disabled children. It is short sighted to not invest in our families – as pointed out above the cost on the rest of the system if us parent carers and our families fall apart is huge. Be that physical and mental health care needs as an impact of caring, housing needs as a consequence of parental seperation or residential accommodation for our children if we just can’t cope.
How pathetic. Taking money away from the most vulnerable members of society, the disabled. This council would pull the plug on a disabled person’s life support if it meant saving a few extra quid. By taking away the funds that allow the disabled to take part in the community, and allow their parents and carers a few hours of respite, from their 24/7 care rota, they have effectively done just that. Solicitors will be sought.
There is clearly a need here for group litigation – the Council is failing its legal duty to children with disabilities with multiple examples of ableist and discriminatory policies and practices across the B&H Council including social care, education, leisure, transport, housing. Any court would be horrified and parent carers have had enough of being individually strong-armed into accepting the unacceptable.
I support the idea of group litigation and/or a class action lawsuit. Enough is enough.