Disability partnership hit by cash dispute

An arrangement supporting people with learning disabilities in a county will stop at the end of this month because of a cash row, it has emerged.

Cambridgeshire County Council's adults and health committee chair, Richard Howitt, said the local NHS owed the authority £10m.

The plug is being pulled on the Cambridgeshire Learning Disability Partnership (LDP) which integrates health and social care, he added.

Local health chiefs said they did not agree with the figure it is claimed they owe and maintained service users would be helped with any changes.

The LDP, set up in 2002, brings together local health and social care support for adults over 18.

It is currently operated by the county council and the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Integrated Care Board (ICB), who pool funding.

"The partnership, which provides an integrated service to people with learning disabilities by both health and social care in Cambridgeshire, will become separate services again," Mr Howitt said.

He added there would be uncertainty for service users and the LDP's staff.

Mr Howitt, who is also deputy Labour group leader, said: "We are three weeks away from a major change and the health service has no information given to service users, or to us, as their partners, about who is going to do the assessments and how the decisions are going to be made about people's care."

He claimed cuts to some healthcare services would follow because the ICB "have a savings target, and they're going to be assessing individual people with learning disabilities, case by case, starting on April 1st".

He told the BBC: "They're going to be seeking to withdraw services to save money and because that's going to be week by week, case by case there won't be one big big moment where that will hit".

The ICB said it was focused on making sure its service users received the right funding for their healthcare needs, not making savings.

The LDP brings together specialist health and social care services.

On the health side, it provides access to specialist nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists and related health professionals, according to the Care Quality Commission.

Speech and language therapists as well as art, music and occupational therapy are also funded.

The county council provides the bulk of the funding, towards such things as supported accommodation, respite services, day care and direct payments to carers.

The LDP is organised into five teams based in Cambridge city, Cambridge south, Ely, March and Huntingdon

Its mission is to "help people with learning disabilities in Cambridgeshire have as independent, healthy and safe life as possible".

The ICB said assessments of health needs would continue to be carried out by appropriately trained health staff.

An ICB spokesman said: "Our priority is the ongoing provision of care for service users to meet their individual healthcare needs and ensuring a smooth transition for service users and their families and carers."

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