East Sussex funding gap: Have your say on the Steps to Work 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

Steps to Work is run by the Council and employs 12 members of staff when fully staffed, although there are currently some vacancies. The service provides accredited training to prepare clients for work and supports them to find and retain employment by matching them with job coaches.

People accessing Steps to Work can complete a 16-week training programme prior to getting support with job seeking, or they can access job seeking support without the training element. They receive weekly support until they have found a job and once they have found employment the service will support them to settle in and retain the job for up to six months.

The service works with local employers to build relationships and identify employment opportunities. It also runs the Shine car wash service at the Council’s County Hall building in Lewes. Shine offers work experience and a range of transferable skills with the aim of helping people transition into paid employment.

People are referred to the service by the care management teams in adult social care. The criteria for accessing the service are that people must be aged 18+ with a learning disability and/or an Autism diagnosis.

There are currently 61 clients using the service. Of these, 31 are either training or actively job seeking, while the rest are either due to start work soon or are already in employment with light touch support.

There are several supported employment services run by other providers in East Sussex, including Little Gate, Chalk Farm, Aspens and Parchment Trust. Steps to Work is the only one that works on a county-wide basis.

What we are proposing to change

We are proposing to close the Steps to Work service from April 2025. This would include closing the Shine car wash service around the same time.

Steps to Work clients already in paid or unpaid work would be able to carry on in their roles, although they would no longer receive support from the service to maintain their employment. Most of the volunteers working at the Shine service have other employment as well, which they would be able to continue with.

Alternative pre-employment training or employment support services could be found from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) or the voluntary and community sector in future. DWP provides employment support and job coaches, while voluntary and community sector provision across the county includes Little Gate, Chalk Farm, Aspens and Parchment Trust. Clients with particular support needs may also be able to meet these in different ways such as through support from a Personal Assistant to maintain their employment. Our care management teams in adult social care would help people to access services as part of support planning.

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.

There are other organisations offering supported employment services to people with a learning disability and/or Autism. Given the financial pressures we face, it is difficult to justify continuing to run this service when alternatives exist.

How people and organisations would be affected

People currently using the service who haven’t already found employment would need to move to a new employment support service. This could be worrying and stressful for people and their families. Depending on where people live it may be harder to find them alternative services in the independent sector, as most of the services are based in the east of the county.

There would be a risk that people with a learning disability and/or Autistic people may find it harder to get and keep jobs in future. This risks them becoming de-skilled and isolated. They may also end up needing more support from other services, such as day services.

The family and carers of clients would be affected by the change too. They would need to support the person through the transition and if alternative services can’t be found it may affect their ability to have a break from their caring role or to maintain their own employment.