by Simon Bottery, Director of Fundraising, Policy and
Communications
Lancashire county council has just published its budget, outlining
in detail how it plans to cut a quarter of its spending - £179m -
over the next three years. For older people using care services it
makes scary reading.
The direct savings for 2011 alone include:
- £2.5m by raising the eligibility threshold for adult social
care from 'moderate' to 'substantial'. The council has 3,900 people
currently assessed as 'moderate' so their care is now at risk.
- £1.5m in reducing spending on non-residential social care - a
cut of up to 20% in spending on domiciliary care, day care and
personal budget. Instead there will be 'greater reliance on
universal, preventative and low-level initiatives', 'greater use of
telecare' and more focus on 'rehabilitation, reablement and
recovery services'
- £1.5m cuts in its Supporting People programme of housing
support for vulnerable adults
- £1.85m cuts in social-care assessment and management staff
costs, leading to a 'delay in non-urgent social work
assessments'
- £4.2m in increased charges for non-residential care services
meaning that some people will pay between £30.75 and £53.80 per day
for services that are currently costing them £5. The council
estimates that the largest group of users affected will be 5,000
who will pay £11.63 more each week.
There are other savings that will have less obvious but
potentially drastic effects on services too:
- £1.5m cut from social care training
- £7m saved by reducing the fees paid by the council to care
providers. This means organisations providing social care will see
their fees cut by 2 percent in 2010. The council says, surely
optimistically, that this 'should not affect overall levels of
service'.
The council is making cuts across the board, from
environment to children's services. You can read its plans in full
at
http://council.lancashire.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=1051
Across the country, other councils are gearing up to do similar
things to Lancashire. Hackney Council in London, for example, is
cutting £46m over the next two years. Adult Social Care is being
hit by cutting drop-in centres and residential units, and day care
is being reduced. Contracts for outsourced services are also being
reduced. Staffing levels are being reviewed.
Not all these changes are necessarily bad. The emphasis on
reablement and preventative work is welcome, while telecare has
potential if the need for social contact is met in other ways.
Nonetheless, it has been hard to see this as anything but a major
reduction in service provision. For all the coalition government's
statements that councils have been funded to maintain social care
funding, this is the reality of the average 27% cuts they face over
the next four years
Happy New Year.
