BARNSLEY Council has approved plans for a new strategy on adult social care which aims to save almost £2m over a three-year period.
Adult and children’s social care is an area where costs have spiralled in recent years.
But a new plan - which was signed off before last week’s election - has been created to save a huge £1.8m over the next three years.
The council say that the changes will not impact on the council’s statutory responsibility to delivery care.
The main aims of the report are to show how the council will continue to meet its duties, set out a clear understanding of the current challenges, identifying opportunities to reshape how care is delivered and to provide a basis for ‘invest-to-save’.
Invest-to-save is up front investment to deliver savings for the council later down the line.
A report states: “The strategy positions commissioning, practice, and facilitation of care as the main levers for change.
“Its aim is to ensure we have the right care in the right place at the right time.
“Prevention focuses highly in the strategy ensuring that people have access to community-based support rather than necessarily defaulting to care.
“It places a strong emphasis on supporting people with learning disabilities, where appropriate, into locally based supported living as opposed to out of area residential placements.
“Our aim is to bring people closer to home, family and friends and the benefits of living in a place that is familiar to them.
“Contract management practices will be addressed to ensure that placements wherever possible are made with suppliers who have been selected to provide care.
“This will ensure that we maintain value for money in relation to the quality and price of care.
“We will work closely with the community voluntary sector to support people maximising benefits such as attendance allowance and invest in low level support services that will help reduce social isolation.
“We will place a strong emphasis on the use of technologies to support people.
“The strategy requires an investment to enable the changes to take place.”
The overall investment will total more than £250,000 but a figure has not been given in the report.
“This report requests the cabinet spokesperson to approve invest to save finance of £1,805,090.” it added.
“As the approval required is above £250,000 and not included within a previous budget, this is a key decision.
“Reducing spot purchasing and out-of-area placements implies a shift to framework/contracted provision and local market development especially for learning disabilities/autism.
“The strategy depends heavily on housing supply.
“It implies a major workload shift to reassessment/review activity, plus process/system changes.”
