Press

Press Release

United Response comments on Comprehensive Spending Review

11th October 2007

Su Sayer, chief executive of United Response, has welcomed plans announced in the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) to focus greater attention on the needs of vulnerable adults for settled accommodation, employment, education and training.

She said:

"The new Public Service Agreement for socially excluded adults (announced by the Social Exclusion Task Force yesterday) identifies adults with severe mental health needs and adults with moderate to severe learning disabilities as key groups for additional support in a way it hasn’t done before.

"However, United Response is concerned that the planned cuts to the budget of the Department of Work and Pensions may further marginalise employment support services for adults with learning disabilities.

"Provision of employment support for people with learning disabilities is patchy and accorded low priority, despite the huge benefits which employment can provide both in terms of reducing social exclusion and people's dependence on welfare benefits.

"We hope the focus on vulnerable adults in new Public Service Agreement will mean that these vital services will be given a boost.

"We are also concerned that the increase in the budget for adult social care announced in the CSR is too low to ensure that all vulnerable adults receive decent care services.

"As the Commission for Social Care Inspection has warned, social care is already being severely rationed in many parts of the country so that only those with the most acute needs receive support, whilst those with moderate needs sometimes receive nothing at all.

"The level of the increase in the budget falls far below that projected by Wanless Social Care Review to allow for growing demands for funding, particularly with an ageing population."

Ends

For more information or to set up an interview with United Response, please contact Sarah Bartlett or Jaime Gill in the United Response Press Office on or

or call 020 8246 5122 / 020 8246 5237

Notes to Editors:

1. United Response is a national charity that works with people with learning disabilities or mental health needs – including some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

We provide everything from 24 hour care to a few hours of support a week. United Response is community based, working in many localities across England and Wales.

Our mission is to support people with learning disabilities or mental health needs to take control of their lives. We design our care and support around each person and work with them to achieve real inclusion, independence and citizenship for all. We support people across the whole spectrum of learning disability and mental health and have developed a range of specialisms in working with people with the most complex needs, particularly person-centred active support.

We are working towards a society where people with learning disabilities or mental health needs are equal participants and have access to the same rights and opportunities as everyone else.

We have won several awards for our pioneering work and for being a top employer. In 2007 alone, we have been highly commended by the Charity Awards for our “Good To Great” approach to providing support, while the Charity Times named us one of the best six charities to work for in the UK. We are experts in the development of accessible communications.

United Response was founded in 1973 by chief executive Su Sayer. We are a top 100 charity, supporting more than 1,500 people throughout the UK at any one time and employing more than 2,000 staff.