Have your say on the savings proposals for Adult Social Care services

Closed 25 Apr 2018

Opened 15 Feb 2018

Results updated 28 Jun 2018

Cabinet has approved the recommendations to make the proposed savings from the following services (subject to call in):

  • Carers Services
  • Discretionary East Sussex Support Scheme
  • HIV Support Service
  • Learning Disability Directly Provided Services
  • Learning disability residential services
  • Older People’s Directly Provided Services:  intermediate care beds and day services
  • Older People’s Commissioned Day Services
  • Stroke Recovery Service

In addition, Cabinet agreed to deploy the additional Adult Social Care Funding from Government of £1.6m against the savings proposals for Supporting People Accommodation Based Housing Support and Community Based Housing Support services to reduce the savings required from these areas.  The rationale for this decision was the significant reach of these services to vulnerable adults and young people.

Cabinet also approved a number of savings proposals relating to adult social care staffing.

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Keith Glazier, has written an open letter regarding the decisions made by Cabinet.

The papers for the Cabinet meeting, including the reports, recommendations, consultation reports and Equality Impact Assessment are still available to the public by visiting the ESCC website here (for adult social care items see 7-17 on the agenda). You can also download a PDF easy read summary of the learning disability directly provided services results report here.

Many people will be worried about their future care and support as a result of these decisions. Our staff will be working with service providers over the coming weeks and months, and with the people who use services, to support them through the hard and difficult work of bringing about these changes. If you’re worried about what this will mean for you or someone you care about, please contact your service provider directly or contact Health and Social Care Connect on 0345 60 80 191. 

Overview

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 asked for people’s views on how we were proposing to make the nearly £10 million in savings. What people told us helped us to understand the impact and risks associated with our proposals.

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.

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

We knew that people would 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 people's feedback was so important.

What people told us was a key part of the decision making process. The results of the consultation were considered by decision makers, alongside relevant evidence and the Equalities Impact Assessments.

Areas

  • All Areas

Audiences

  • Community groups or organisations
  • Voluntary groups or organisations
  • Public sector groups or organisations
  • Staff
  • Providers of services
  • Residents of East Sussex
  • Carers
  • People who use our services

Interests

  • Care and support services (adults)
  • Carers support
  • Social care providers