East Sussex funding gap: Have your say on the Community Support Service

Our funding gap

East Sussex County Council (the Council) has a net budget of £538.1 million for the year from April 2024 to March 2025. Our net budget is the money we have to spend which is financed by business rates, council tax receipts and the revenue support grant we get from the national government.

We expect our net budget for next year to be a similar amount. This means that we are facing a financial gap of £55 million for 2025/26. The financial gap is the difference between the funding available and the cost of keeping services at their present level.

Most local authorities are facing similar pressures. We face this gap even though we are a well-run and efficient council which has saved £140 million since 2010 and found new ways to work effectively through difficult times. Unfortunately, the cost pressures we face now are so great that efficiency alone is not enough and the limited reserves of money we have available would not be enough to meet the financial gap. Most importantly, reserves can only be spent once and could not repeatedly fill the financial gap which councils face every year. It is also not possible to close the whole gap by raising council tax as the increase that would be required is beyond the limit set by national Government.

We are legally obliged to close the financial gap and balance our budget. This means that some tough decisions will have to be made and reduced services are possible in all areas. When making these decisions, our priority will be to maintain protection and support, wherever possible, for the most vulnerable people in our community.

There is more information about why we have to make savings and what we are doing to highlight the issues local authorities face with the national Government on our website at https://www.eastsussex.gov.uk/your-council/finance/east-sussex-our-funding-gap.

Social care support

Adult Social Care and Health is a department of East Sussex County Council. We work with people aged 18 and over who live in East Sussex. We help people live healthy and independent lives, whatever that may look like for them. We look at people's strengths, capabilities, support network, community and difficulties and work with them to find solutions.

The Council has a legal duty to provide social care support to those who are eligible. About three quarters of the East Sussex budget goes on providing social care for children and adults, with adult social care accounting for nearly half of the budget (48%). Care and support for adults is not free and we charge for most of our services. The amount people pay depends on their financial situation, but most people have to pay something towards their care, with the remaining costs paid by the Council.

Nationally, social care is under pressure due to a combination of demographic, financial, and systemic factors. East Sussex is no stranger to this, facing unique challenges which impact on the need for support and services in the county. Around 25% of the East Sussex population is over 65 compared to a national figure of 18%, average wages remain lower than the national average and 30,000 people in the county are living in some of the most deprived areas of England. We have also seen a 40% increase in the average weekly cost of providing care in East Sussex since 2020.

As people live longer, they may require care and support for longer, and their care and support needs are likely to become more complex over time. There is also evidence that the cost of living challenges have increased demand for care, as well as making people less able to afford their contribution towards the cost of care.

As social care is such a large part of the Council’s budget, we will need to make savings to services in this area too. Reduced services are likely, and we will need to review staff numbers, but the amount we need to save can’t be achieved through reducing the workforce alone.

Developing the savings proposals

Given the financial gap we are facing, we know it is impossible to avoid some of our residents being negatively affected by the difficult decisions that we need to make. We have tried our best to identify proposed savings that would have the least possible impact on people’s care and wellbeing.

We know too that many of our external partners in the NHS, local authorities, providers and the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector (VCSE) are experiencing their own pressures in terms of demand for services and funding challenges. Where we can, we’ve tried to take that into account in looking for savings.

Our priority in Adult Social Care and Health is to meet our legal duties under the Care Act. To help us to do this, we have identified funding areas that we think need to be protected when we are looking at savings options.

The priority funding areas are:

• Community care budget: This budget covers the cost of care that is provided to adults who are eligible for social care support because of a disability or health condition. This budget is already under pressure because more people need our help, the cost of providing care is increasing, and our residents are increasingly struggling to pay their contribution towards the cost of care.

• Carers: As well as protecting the budget for community care which funds support for people who are eligible for social care support, we have tried to protect the direct support we provide to unpaid carers who are looking after their family members and friends. This is because carers play an invaluable role in meeting care and support needs for so many residents and reduce the amount of support residents need from other services.

• Voluntary and community enterprise sector (VCSE): These organisations make a huge contribution to preventing, reducing and delaying the need for care and support from the community care budget. For this reason, we want to protect the funding that we provide to support this sector as far as possible, particularly where we can demonstrate that services are supporting our statutory duties and other priority funding areas.

• Frontline workers: We need to ensure we have enough social work staff and occupational therapy workers to carry out assessments and put care and support in place. We also need to retain enough financial assessment staff to ensure we are funding those who are most in need and that people pay the correct contribution.

• Care market: We need to ensure we have enough staff so that we can support the care market and ensure we have a good supply of services that deliver the best value.

How the service works now

The East Sussex Community Support Service is a registered service providing care and support for adults with a learning disability. It is run by the Council and there are two parts to the service: Supported Living and Community Support.

Supported Living: This part of the service supports everyone living in a shared property with their own tenancy. We have four supported living properties, with space for 33 residents. The service supports residents with things like daily living tasks, personal care, and medication. This part of the service employs 30 members of staff, although there are currently some vacancies.

Community Support Service: This part of the service supports adults living in their own home and adults living in supported living services who need more support than the on-site staff can provide. There are 35 clients living in their own homes that use the service and they live across the county. All the residents in supported living receive additional support from this part of the service.

The service supports people to maintain their independence and it employs 22 members of staff. The support ranges from helping them to do practical tasks such as shopping, cooking, and attending medical appointments, through to maintaining their social connections and relationships.

What we are proposing to change

We are proposing to stop providing the community support part of the service. This proposal would affect people living in supported living and at home differently.

People living independently in their own home: If the proposal went ahead, we would find people an alternative service, most likely from the private sector, who could support them instead. This might be through recruiting a Personal Assistant or using home care service providers.

People in supported living: If the proposal went ahead, people would have all their support needs met by the team based at their supported living property at Field Cottage, Park Lane, the Ferns or the Martins. There might be changes to the number of staff working at the property and who supports them.

Why we are proposing this saving

While we recognise the importance of these services, the budget pressures we face mean that we have to make difficult decisions about how we spend our money.  

Given that there are alternative services that can provide community support to people, it’s difficult to justify continuing to fund this service.

How people and organisations would be affected

Clients living in supported living should not be affected as their support would be provided by staff who they already know and work with. In the long term, the change is likely to improve the consistency of care and offer a better service for residents. The main impact would therefore be the uncertainty involved in making the change.

Clients living in their own homes would need to be found an alternative service. There would be support from our care management teams in adult social care to do this, although it may be harder to find services that suit people’s needs in the same way. Services might also not have availability at the specific times that people want.

The family and carers of clients would be affected by the proposal, even if their loved ones are living independently. For those whose loved ones are living at home, if suitable services can’t be found it may affect people’s ability to take a break from their caring role or maintain their employment.