With thanks to Brian Hilton.

On Manchester Radio recently there was a feature on what has happened to former ILF recipients in Greater Manchester.

BBC Radio Manchester submitted FOI to all 10 Greater Manchester authorities asking what had happened to the care support of former ILF recipients. The results revealed that 42% of former ILF recipients had had their care reduced since the closure of the ILF.

The item was revisited through the show (see iPlayer link below) and featured a former ILF recipient called April from Stockport who had had her 62 hours a week care reduced  by 38 hours a week. She can’t go out, urinates in a bottle and has a lift in her house that she is unable to use.

In one of the segments they interviewed John Roust (Chief Executive – Greater Manchester Health & Social Care Partnership) who said they had set up a “Personalisation Team” to look at how social care recipients can better utilise and have more control over the care they receive. One example he gave was recipients pooling their resources. An interesting aside is that John Roust has a disabled daughter, so said he had a personal and professional interest in this issue.

In another section they interviewed Jackie Driver (Chair – Breakthrough UK) who said that cuts were seriously affecting disabled people’s wellbeing. Also, said that Greater Manchester Devolution presented us with an opportunity to address such issues.

The segments were featured at

24 minutes

1 hour and 11 minutes

2 hours and 10 minutes

2 hours and 42 minutes

Here is the iPlayer link if you want to have a listen: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04v9nhq