Adult social care staffing (AH1)

Core Offer

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This core offer includes services that the council is legally obliged to provide. The link below provides detailed information about what is included.

Link: AH1 - People Adult Social Care Staffing

This proposal will be discussed at the Adults and housing scrutiny committee [PDF document] on 22 March 2016.

Keywords: voluntary sector VCS

Related FAQs

What will be the impact on voluntary organisations such as Citizen’s Advice, Age UK, GADD? What happens if they close?

We fully support the work of our voluntary sector partners and hope to continue to work with them in the future. However, the financial situation is such that the Council is not able to continue funding these organisations at current levels. The likely impact of the budget proposals on these organisations is currently being identified, following discussions with the organisations most affected. We hope that they are able to continue their work by looking at where they can make further cost and efficiency savings, but we appreciate that in some cases this may not be possible and it will therefore mean a reduction in the support they can offer to the residents of Darlington. It could lead to the closure of organisations if they are unable to make the necessary changes for them to be sustainable, which will be very regrettable. We want to avoid this happening and we will support organisations making grant applications where we can. We will also be undertaking work to understand the impact of any reductions in service on individuals accessing them.

What will changes to Adult Social Care mean for elderly people – will they get less support and have to pay more for services? What if they can’t afford it?

Adult Social Care will carry out an assessment to find out if an individual has eligible needs. The national eligibility criteria, as defined within the Care Act 2014, sets a minimum level for adult care and support needs which the Local Authority must meet. If following an assessment, an individual has eligible needs then Adult Social Care will work with them to look at ways of meeting their needs. This may include support from family, friends, the community and, where appropriate, through the provision of services.

Individuals in receipt of support are financially assessed to see what level of contribution they need to make towards the cost of their care - individuals should only be required to pay what they can afford to.

There is a proposed reduction of approximately 4 per cent from current spend. This will be delivered through making people more aware of local support networks, improving independence through specialist support for those recovering from illness or injury, greater use of digital care technology, and more use of extra care accommodation.

There are some services that are currently provided free of charge or at subsidised rates, which the Council may charge for in the future. This would affect those who contribute to the cost of their care.

Your Say

5 comment(s)

Comment
Core AH1 (Adult social care staffing) Reablement should only be for those likely to improve.Those who probably wont should pay from the outset.My neighbour had reablement free for weeks but has money.Eventually they had to pay for carers to come in every day.If they had paid from the start you would save money!
Core AH1 (Adult social care staffing) Core AH2 (Adult Social Care Other Commitments) Firstly, allow me to congratulate Darlington Borough Council on consistently raising council tax, whilst the wages and disposable income of all others constantly decrease, the real achievement however, is at the same time providing decreasing services, less value for money and the 'selling off' of public property to no apparent benefit whatsoever of the population of the borough. Ref: [...] The appearance of Adult Social Care* on the annual council tax bill is absolutely unacceptable. I am not charitable unless it involves those who truly deserve it, less so when 'Adults' cannot care for themselves, or have not had the foresight to implement a practicable plan to ensure their future well-being, such as Health Insurance, Pension, Care plan, or any other policy of that nature. I would like to speak to the individual or group responsible for making this decision on my behalf, without prior consultation, as I feel this person/people owe me a detailed explanation, and a refund. As such, could you please inform me of the name, office and contact details of those responsible for this precept.
Core AH1 (Adult social care staffing) Core AH2 (Adult Social Care Other Commitments) This is a transcription of a comment made during the public meetings held during the budget consultation: Q: If you reduce the amount of people that do admin work for social services, you are increasing the pressure on social workers, who are already overloaded with huge caseloads, which are actually unmanageable. That’s when mistakes happen, as we have seen in the past.
Core AH1 (Adult social care staffing) Q: £2.7m has been spent on agency staff in the past seven months. Can we have assurances that is going to be looked at? A (Cllr Copeland): Yes, we employ some agency staff and there’s a particular issue with Adult Social Care with long-term illness. Unfortunately, we’ve got a number of staff who have been ill. Sometimes we have difficulty with recruiting, because we are in competition with neighbouring authorities and it’s an ever-decreasing pool. We’re very conscious of the additional costs and we will, as far as we can, reduce the numbers that we do need to employ.
Core AH1 (Adult social care staffing) Core AH2 (Adult Social Care Other Commitments) This is a transcription of comments made during the public meetings held during the budget consultation: Q: By reducing preventative support for vulnerable adults, aren’t you setting yourself up for future costs when people need further support when they require statutory social care? Adult social care staff have been reduced, but there’s a vast number of agency staff employed not on short term contracts, but perhaps extended to a year or sometimes two, at a cost of £1k net per week in wages per person. Is that going to be stopped? A: We get grants for statutory services, which usually means when people are on their uppers, that’s when Council intervenes. We don’t get funding to do all that wonderful prevention work.

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