Have your say on the savings proposals for carers services

Overview

• Updated frequently asked questions have been published (see related documents below). We will publish a final set before the consultation closes in April.

The Council agreed its budget for 2018/19 at its meeting on 6 February.
It will see the Council make savings of £17 million. This includes a budget
reduction for Adult Social Care and Health of nearly £10 million.

We are asking for people’s views on how we are proposing to make the nearly £10 million in savings. What people tell us will help us to understand the impact and risks associated with our proposals. There may also be other ideas that we haven’t thought of.

If you use services that would be affected by the proposals you can speak to your provider or contact us.

How to take part

You can share you views on as many or as few of our proposals as you want. Depending on how you are taking part you will be asked different questions, for example, whether you are responding on behalf or an organisation or as someone who uses services.  

You can fill in the online surveys or download PDFs to print and post back to us. You can  also send us a letter, record a video, have someone else put down your words – whatever works best for you.

If you need the information or another format or language please contact us.

Why your views matter

The financial challenges we face as a local authority are long-standing and significant. The Council has recognised this and has urged the Government to give our county a fairer deal through the ‘Stand up for East Sussex’ petition.

You may be aware that the Government recently announced some extra funding for social care provision. For us, it will mean an additional £1.6 million. No decisions have been made yet on how that money will be spent.

To find out why we have to make savings watch our video

Despite these ongoing challenges, the Council remains committed to supporting and protecting vulnerable people and delivering the best services possible. As a department, Adult Social Care and Health has to find a way to meet this commitment, while dealing with having nearly £10 million less to spend and rising demand for our services.

Local authorities have a legal duty to meet people’s eligible social care needs, and this won’t be affected by our savings proposals. It does mean though that we’ve had to prioritise spending money on the services that allow us to meet those duties.

We are looking at many of the services we provide to see if they can be improved and if they can be delivered for less money. We are also proposing to spend less money on preventative services which help to stop or delay the need for more expensive statutory services.

We know that people will have concerns about many of the proposals and it is likely that services that people value would either need to stop, change or be reduced. This will have a big impact on people who use services, their carers and families and the staff who provide them, which is why your feedback is so important.

What happens next?

No decisions will be made about changes to services until after the consultation ends. What you tell us will be a key part of the decision making process. The results of the consultation will be considered by decision makers, alongside relevant evidence and the Equalities Impact Assessments.