Wokingham

“Wokingham District Council is to consider refocusing its limited social care resources to protect those people most in need in the Wokingham district and to look at investing in alternative, more cost-effective services for those who are less vulnerable. This is as a result of severe under-funding from central government for adult social care nationally and growing demand for these services which is putting more and more pressure on already stretched social care budgets. This is despite significant investment of an additional £5.5million in social care by the council over the past three years.”

That’s the message from Wokingham Cllr Debbie Lewis, lead member for social care finances, as the council’s decision-making executive prepares to consider consulting on proposals to review who is eligible to receive the adult social care services provided or arranged by its community care service.

Wokingham Cllr Lewis said: “If the council did nothing at all about this, the service would be unaffordable, or could need up to 4% extra council tax every year from everyone in the district to fund the increased demand. This would be on top of the council’s other normal growth pressures such as inflation, landfill tax and increasing energy costs.

"Indeed, to keep our eligibility criteria at current levels and cope with growing demand, we would have to put at least an extra £2.4million into our care budget next year, funding we simply do not have. And this could have to continue for future years.

“We can’t just increase our council tax, as residents have told us they want council tax increases to be kept as low as possible. Even if we wanted to raise council tax to the levels that would be needed to meet anticipated social care demand and other unavoidable cost pressures in the council, we wouldn’t be able to as any increase in the region of 5% or above is likely to be ‘capped’ by the government.

“It is important to clarify that we are not looking to reduce the overall amount we spend on social care but, because of the increasing demand for services and lack of growth in national funding, we are considering how best to target our scarce resources to those most in need.

“Therefore, to keep pace with increasing demands - more older people and the complex needs of some of our younger disabled clients - we need to tighten our eligibility criteria and to prioritise our limited resources to help those most at risk in our communities, as well as comprehensively reforming our services to have a greater focus on the preventive agenda. We have finite resources and we have to look at targeting these resources in the most effective way to safeguard services in the future for our most vulnerable residents.

“This situation is reflected the length and breadth of the country as the current national funding and service structures are not adequate to cope with the increase in our elderly population, and there seems little prospect of immediate national investment in much-needed preventive community-based services. What’s more, Wokingham District Council is one of the worst funded of all English councils for adult social care and this year received, overall, one of the lowest government financial settlements in the country. Furthermore, we expect a below inflation increase of 2.7% for 2007-08.”
The Wokingham council’s executive will be considering on Thursday November 9 whether or not to carry out formal consultation on proposed changes as to who can receive social care from the council. The proposal is to change the criteria from its current ‘moderate’ level so that only people classed as in ‘critical’ need would be eligible for adult social care services.

In brief, if the changes went ahead, they would mean that services for people most in need would be protected and safeguarded for the future, such as residential care, nursing care and supported living. Essential personal care services and mental health after-care would also be protected but other services such as shopping and housework, day care and carers’ services would have to be reviewed. Anyone living in a residential or nursing home or supported housing would not lose their right to continue to live there.

The council would also look to invest significantly in alternative support and prevention services by working closely with its public, private and voluntary partners.

The executive report explains how the consultation would ask local Wokingham social care service users, service providers and voluntary, community and partner organisations for their comments on the council’s reasons for the proposal and for ideas on how the changes could best be implemented if they went ahead. The consultation would also seek opinion on what community-based support and prevention services would be most effective and any suggestions that would help deliver services more efficiently.

Wokingham Cllr Lewis said: “I’m conscious this review may worry and unsettle some of our clients and carers and, if the decision is taken to proceed, the council would endeavour to take every possible step to ensure people are kept informed as to how these proposals could affect them. If the changes go ahead, everyone over 18 receiving social care services would have their needs re-assessed. Some people might not continue to receive services in the same way but we would ensure that they were made fully aware of where they could get alternative care.

“We would also seek to invest in alternative support and preventive services in order to minimise the numbers of people requiring specialist and intensive services in the future which, in turn, would help manage longer term cost pressures,” stressed Cllr Lewis.

Prevention aims to maintain independence and increase choice by achieving a balance between protecting Wokingham people and enabling them to manage their own lives. Measures include direct support such as intermediate care to help prevent hospital admission and to speed up discharge from hospital or more indirect and longer-term support such as fall prevention advice, supported employment and drop-in and advice services.

“This shift towards preventive community-based services would free up skilled care staff so they can concentrate more on those in greatest need, whilst enabling those people that councils can no longer directly support to look at other ways of meeting their needs. If Wokingham District Council chose to proceed then we would invest in a range of support and prevention services. Our aim would be to work actively in partnership with external stakeholders, including Community Voluntary Action - Wokingham District and the new Berkshire West Primary Care Trust, in order to develop support and prevention strategies that would complement the provision of social care services,” said Cllr Lewis.

If the executive approves the recommendation then the formal consultation period would begin at the start of December. Lasting for 10 weeks, the consultation would involve Wokingham service users, carers, partnership boards, partnership organisations, voluntary organisations and service providers. The closing date would be February 9, 2007, and the results would be considered at the February meeting of the executive. If the executive then approved the changes, some 2,700 clients would have their needs fully reassessed during next spring and summer but it is anticipated that only a relatively small percentage would be affected. No changes to care packages would be made until an individual’s re-assessment had been completed.

Wokingham District Council