Council disabled services rated 'bad' in charity report

North East Lincolnshire Council's disabled services have been rated "bad" in a charity's report.

The national survey, funded by the disability charity Scope, was drawn up by the think tank Demos using Freedom of Information requests.

It rated the council 140th out of 152 local authorities in the quality of its services, despite an increase in its disability budget.

The council said it disagreed with the findings.

Alex O'Dwyer, director of communications at Scope, said the council seemed to be "coping very badly in terms of meeting disabled people's needs".

She said there had been an increase in charges for home care and laundry services, and said that it had become more difficult to qualify for support.

"The eligibility criterion has increased, so people who used to receive support are now being denied that support because it's being deemed that their needs aren't critical enough."

North East Lincolnshire Council said its recent assessment by the health watchdog the Quality Care Commission "concluded that local adult social care services were consistently delivering excellent or very good services".

Councillor Ian Lindley, portfolio holder for people services, said: "The results from this analysis don't stack up against the range of other information we have, including the views and experiences of the people who use our services."