By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter
A series of “high risk” cuts to council-run care services could force vulnerable residents to move into privately-provided facilities and away from their friendship groups.
Nottingham City Council is looking to fill a £53m hole in its budget for the year beginning April 2024 through a series of significant cuts to services.
The budget black hole comes on top of an in-year gap of £23m, which resulted in the Labour-run authority declaring effective bankruptcy in November.
Some of the proposed cuts will impact adult social care services and these were discussed during a Health and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday, January 30.
Linda Woodings (Lab), the portfolio holder for adult social care, said: “Demand for our services… has increased and the level of care [people] need has increased as well.
“Inflation has been rampant. So we and other councils are facing some incredibly difficult and, from a personal point of view, unpalatable cuts to services that we would not wish to do; and if we had a different Government we probably would not have to do either because there would be better funding.”
On top of reserves being depleted by the collapse of Robin Hood Energy and unlawful spending from the council’s Housing Revenue Account, the budget gaps have largely been put down to soaring demand and costs for adult and children’s social care.
Some adult social care packages cost upwards of £400,000 per year for a single person, while private firms were paid £112m last year, a Freedom of Information request by the Local Democracy Reporting Service revealed in December.
Meanwhile more than 7,000 people have received social care from the council over the past two years and a further 2,000 are still waiting for an assessment.
To set a balanced budget, as required by law, the council has proposed a series of cuts to social care.
These include a saving of £284,000 from the closure of the Jackdawe service, which provides home-care to people living with dementia, with an externally commissioned alternative proposed in its place.
The closure would result in the loss of up to 46 jobs.
The Oaks and Cherry Trees residential care homes for adults could also be closed to save £313,000, but come at a loss of 88 jobs.
During the meeting councillors were told the authority would first attempt to sell them as a going concern, however if this cannot be achieved they may have to close.
“The second option of closure of the homes and re-commissioning of care individually would mean residents have to move; may not be with their current friendship groups; and will be supported by new staff and providers,” council documents say.
Cllr Maria Joannou, who worked as an occupational therapist and now represents Bulwell for Labour, said: “We are closing centres of excellence and once we close them there is no going back, it takes years to get that level of really good practice.”
It is also proposed that Barkla Close, which provides residential respite care for adults with learning disabilities, is closed to save £123,000.
In total 35 families are currently using the service and 11 are waiting to use the service.
If the proposal is accepted, the services it offers would be externally commissioned.
Whether an external service can be secured successfully “cannot be guaranteed”, councillors were told.
Cllr Joannou added: “There are things I think would make less of an impact. If we were saving millions that would be different, but we are not. Half a million to close two care homes and this?”
Catherine Underwood, the corporate director of people services, said: “We have asked the question about where there are opportunities in terms of staffing and management.
“As you say it is not a huge sum of money, but actually we needed to bring forward all of those opportunities and overall I wanted to be really clear, this is a service we will continue to make sure happens.”
Additional cuts include the cessation of grant funding for all lunch clubs for vulnerable adults to save a further £73,000.
The council currently provides grants to ACNA, the Afro Caribbean Lunch Club, St Ann’s Indian Community Centre, Marcus Garvey in Lenton, The Pakistan Centre and the Wollaton Care Group.
During the meeting concerns were raised that it would hamper efforts to reduce isolation in communities.
Around £2.2m in savings are also being sought from restructuring and reducing tiers of management and overall resource across the adult social care assessment function, including occupational therapy and sensory teams.
The proposal would result in 40 job cuts.
Cllr Georgia Power, the chair of the committee, recommended a review of the closure of Jackdawe home-care and similar services.
“I think they are very high risk proposals for relatively small gain,” she added.
“[They] leave us very vulnerable if not now then a few years down the line.”
