Applefields School is the local authority’s special school for secondary aged pupils with a wide range of special educational needs. The school supports 140 pupils aged 11–19 years from York and the surrounding areas of North Yorkshire and the East Riding.

In developing the range of local authority provision for children with special educational needs in York, Applefields School sought to establish a Satellite class for students with learning difficulties based in Burnholme secondary school.

The aim of the Satellite provision was to provide opportunities for students with learning difficulties (on the roll of Applefields School) to be based full time in a mainstream secondary school in order to have access to individually planned inclusion opportunities with the support of staff from the special school. The students have use of a base classroom in the mainstream school where they access their core curriculum.

The Council proposes that the Applefields satellite provision will transfer to Manor school when Burnholme closes.

More details: http://tinyurl.com/Applefields

The York Councils anti fraud investigators have completed 164 investigations so far in the current financial year. 48% have resulted in a “successful outcome” (for example benefit stopped or amended, sanctions, prosecutions, properties recovered, housing allocations blocked, management action taken).

Activity to date includes the following:

• Benefit Fraud – 14 people have been prosecuted for benefit fraud offences and a further 10 have received formal sanctions (cautions and administrative penalties). Benefits have been corrected in a further 50 cases.

• Housing Fraud – working in conjunction with housing officers, 15 properties have been recovered in 2012/13. In addition, 2 properties were prevented from being let where the prospective tenants had provided fraudulent information in their housing applications. There are 30 current investigations in this area. City of York Council successfully prosecuted a tenant for subletting this summer. This was only the third such prosecution of this type in thecountry.

• Internal Fraud – the team has received 9 referrals for internal frauds to date. 5 are currently under investigation.

• Social Care Fraud – fraud awareness has been delivered to frontline staff and processes setup for the referral of cases where abuse of the system is suspected. There are currently 7 ongoing investigations in this area.

• Blue Badge Fraud – fraud awareness is currently being undertaken with relevant staff. In October the council prosecuted a member of the public for offences under the Road Traffic Act.

• Council Tax Fraud – there are three ongoing investigations into criminal offences relating to the evasion of council tax.

More details here: http://tinyurl.com/York-Fraud

Three York men were arrested in the early hours of this morning (Sunday 9 December 2012) following three burglaries at commercial premises across the York area overnight.
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The York Council is likely to agree changes to home care and other charging arrangements at a meeting on Wednesday.

They form part of a plan to persuade more elderly and disabled residents to accept “direct payments” to cover their care needs. These payments involve clients receiving an agreed cash amount based on an assessment of their requirements. In turn they are able to decide whether to purchase help from the Council or the private sector. The scheme has the advantage of giving clients customer choice on their care arrangements.

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Take up of the scheme has been relatively low (20%) so far with the complexities and the uncertainties, of the payment process, being partly to blame.

Now a new simplified system is set to be introduced.

As part of the change those getting the assistance of a second carer may have to contribute more for the service.

More details are available at http://tinyurl.com/York-direct-payments

There is some concern that those most affected by the scheme have failed to respond to consultation – or perhaps fully understand what so being proposed.

As of Monday 22/10, the Council had 1540 customers in receipt of a chargeable service. Under the proposals:

• 984 customers will not see a change in their current contribution (428 of these are nil charge)

• 496 customers will see a reduction – the average reduction is £10.07 per week

• 60 customers will see an increase – the average being £107 per week (primarily self funding double up customers)

The Council’s current performance on the care of elderly and disabled residents will be under the spotlight at a meeting on Wednesday.

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Although the care services in York cost less than in comparable authorities, some 14 areas for improvement have been identified.

The Council receives relatively low levels of response to reports like these. Probably not surprising as the published report pointedly fails to include a table of the performance outturns (although it is mentioned in the table of contents).

This is just another confirmation of the secrecy culture that has gripped the York Council over the last year or so.

Such information as has been provided can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/York-Social-Care-2012

City of York Council and the York Human Rights City project are hosting the city’s very first Human Rights Festival from 10-15 December.

The festival will include a variety of events to promote the exchange of ideas, as well as a debate on human rights issues and governance at various levels.

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The York Councils health scrutiny committee will meet on Tuesday. The Cabinet member with responsibility of Health is meeting to take decisions on Wednesday. Neither meeting will however consider the proposed cuts in NHS service standards in York and North Yorkshire. This seems extraordinary given the reports that are emerging.

The Yorkshire Post is reporting today that,

“Thousands of patients face being denied access to hospital care under tough new rules to ration treatment as NHS bosses step up desperate efforts to make millions of pounds in savings.

Numbers of patients returning to hospital for specialist check-ups will be cut by more than half, with follow-up consultations axed altogether in some fields”.

York Councillors seem to be content to be sidelined on this important issue

Meanwhile, the number of complaints about the counties ambulance service have reduced this year.

The main area of concern remains response times with 62 complaints recorded so far during the current year, compared to 147 in the whole of the preceding year.

Full details http://tinyurl.com/Ambulance-complaints

The Prior Medical Group – which runs 5 surgeries across York including one in Cornlands Road, is to merge with the Abbey Medical group. The latter has practices on the east of the City.

Together the new group would have 38 GPs and serve 51,000 patients across 9 locations.

The group reports that 74.5% of patients who responded to consultation favour the change.

The merger will take place on 1st April 2013

More information click here: http://tinyurl.com/Priory-merger

York has been awarded £96,438 to help homeowners and private tenants remain independent in their own homes for longer.

The funding augments the council’s Disabled Facilities Grant Fund which is used to help residents who have been assessed by an occupational therapist as requiring modifications to their home.

Residents can apply for help by contacting City of York Council’s Customer Access and Assessment Team on 01904 555111, or by doing their own, online self assessment at:
http://www.york.gov.uk/health/Services_for_older_people/ or via:
https://www.equip-yourself york.org.uk/smartassist/york

Once an occupational therapist has assessed the need, a referral is made to the council’s Housing Standards and Adaptations team who help over 175 residents each year to adapt their homes such as replacing a bath with a level access shower or providing a stairlift.

The Disabled Facilities Grant Fund is means tested, but members of the team offer support while the adaptation is being carried out.

The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau has compiled a list of twelve frauds that we suspect criminals may use during this festive period.

The Police have created the “Twelve frauds of Christmas ” with the aim of highlighting these fraudulent activities, increasing business and community awareness, together with advice to help prevent you becoming a victim of crime.

If you have been a victim of fraud, now, or in the past, it is important that you report the matter.

see http://tinyurl.com/12-frauds