Short breaks: General article Updated: 19 September 2012

Since April 2011, local authorities have been under a duty to provide a range of short breaks services for disabled children, young people and their families. The new short breaks duty aims to improve and expand short break services, ensuring a wide range of high quality opportunities and providing positive life experiences for children and young people, as well as a break for their parents and carers.

A key part of the short breaks duty is the requirement for all local authorities to prepare a short breaks duty statement, providing details of the local range of services; how services are responding to the needs of local carers; and how services can be accessed, including any eligibility criteria. Local authorities are required to publish statements on their websites and to review them on a regular basis. They must also consider the needs of local parents and carers when preparing and revising their statements.

Over £800 million in non ring-fenced grants is being provided to local authorities for the provision of short breaks between 2011-12 and 2014-15.

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Cuts will limit disabled people's independence

Plans to close the independent living fund will mean severely disabled young people can't fulfil their potential and use their talents to contribute to society.

Media discussion of the crisis in social care focuses on the effects on older people and their families, who bear the brunt of caring when public services let them down. Yes, more older people than disabled people are affected by the social care funding difficulties, but many people don't realise that the life chances of younger disabled people also depend in large part on those same stretched local authority social care budgets.

The government is planning to close the independent living fund (ILF) – which supplements the funding of independent living support for 19,000 of the most severely disabled people – and transfer the money to local authorities, where the needs of older people are already putting services under increasing strain. This combination of challenges to social care services is set to have a catastrophic effect on the ability of severely disabled people to fulfil their potential and use their talents to contribute personally and economically to society.

There are many examples of severely disabled people whose care packages enable them to employ personal assistants of their choosing to maximise their independence, and their ability to participate and make a contribution. To take just a few examples: without extensive support packages, Lady (Jane) Campbell of Surbiton would be unable to fulfil her role in the Lords; Alice Maynard would be unable to run her own consultancy and undertake her duties as chair of Scope; Katherine Araniello would be unable to produce work as an artist and film-maker, and Dr Ian Basnett would be unable to fulfil his role as director of public health for east London and the City.

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Six arrested over alleged mistreatment of elderly care home residents

Arrests follow five-month investigation into alleged incidents at Hillcroft nursing home in Slyne-with-Hest, Lancaster.

Six people have been arrested over alleged mistreatment and neglect of residents in a care home for the elderly. The arrests follow a five-month investigation into a number of reported incidents at Hillcroft nursing home in Slyne-with-Hest, Lancaster. Officers were called to the home in May following a complaint from staff.

The mistreatment is said to have taken place within the home's challenging behaviour unit – which cares for vulnerable adults with advanced Alzheimer's, police said.

Two men, aged 34 and 26, and four women aged 26, 27, 53 and 59 were detained on Wednesday at separate addresses in Lancaster and Morecambe. It is understood that some of those arrested are no longer employed at the nursing home, four are suspended, one has resigned and one has left the profession.

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Independent Living Fund consultation to close

The Independent Living Fund, or ILF, provides financial help so that 19,699 disabled people with complex care needs, can be supported to live at home. A government-run public consultation is currently in place, to get feedback on how ILF users should be supported to live independently beyond 2015, when the fund will cease to exist.

The ILF costs £359m annually and pays out an average of £300 a week per recipient.

The decision to close the fund was made back in 2010, when the government concluded that "given the very different policy context to when the ILF was established in 1988, administering an increasing amount of social care funding outside the mainstream care and support system was no longer appropriate or sustainable". The fund, which was discretionary and managed by trustees, closed to new applications soon afterwards.

On hearing that the ILF was to be phased out, Richard Hawkes, chief executive of disability charity Scope, told BBC News that the decision was "bemusing".

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The course giving service users a say in how social work is taught

Service users and students at South Bank University work alongside each other to debate issues in social work policy and practice.

A class is expectantly listening to professor John MacDonough as he outlines the task to do for today's seminar. When he finishes, they split into groups to discuss the differences between social theory and practice, debate welfare reform and exchange ideas about the impact of different political parties.

However, there's a slight difference between this and any other seminar. In today's class, among the room full of students are also a handful of service users, eager to also debate these issues.

MacDonough is a senior lecturer in social work at London South Bank University, where service user involvement is championed throughout the structure of the three-year BA course: from the interview process to the relationship that the faculty maintains with alumni once they graduate.

Service users – those who receive or are eligible to receive social care services – are playing an increasing role in shaping policy and practice, with organisations such as Think Local Act Personal and Shaping Our Lives giving service users and carers a voice.

From 2002, higher education institutions were required to develop service user and carer involvement throughout the design and delivery of social work courses.

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Liberal Democrat conference: Disabled woman tells party she lives on 50p a day

A disabled woman has told the Liberal Democrat conference how cuts to her benefits have reduced her to living on 50 pence a day and eating at soup kitchens.

Jemma Charlton was one of the disabled party members who spoke in favour of a motion calling for a “full and impartial” review of the impact of the government’s Welfare Reform Act on disabled people. The motion was passed almost unanimously, with just one member voting against.

She told party members that government plans to replace disability living allowance (DLA) with personal independence payment (PIP) would “not take into account people with mental health disabilities or people with hidden disabilities”, and she urged MPs to “fight for those with hidden disabilities who will suffer as a result of these changes”.

Charlton told Disability News Service later that she was now living in a £20-a-night hostel, up three flights of stairs, and sleeping on the middle bunk, despite having a mobility impairment, following her discharge from a mental health centre.

She has lost £500 a month, after seeing her DLA reduced from the higher to the lower rate of the care component, and as a result has also lost her severe disability premium. Click here for more

Parliamentary first for carers in Scotland

Scotland’s first Carers Parliament is being held today (Monday 1 October 2012) in the Scottish Parliament.

A total of 175 carers from 70 of the 73 Scottish Parliamentary constituencies will be attending the parliament – the first ever parliament for carers in the UK. The programme for the day, includes a debate around services and support for carers, a Q&A session with representatives from local and national government and health bodies, and workshops.

The themes for discussion and debate are based on feedback from the 1,000 carers who filled in a survey ahead of the Carers Parliament.

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, Alex Neil MSP will open the Carers Parliament, while Colin Williams, chair of Carers of West Dunbartonshire (a Network Partner of Carers Trust), will sum up the debate in the morning. Click here for more