Audit Commission identifies £300m of social care savings
0The Audit Commission has found that the cheapest councils spend half the amount of the most expensive councils on assessment and reviews for social care.
Councils could release over £300m by spending less on the area, the Audit Commission said. The sum would fund annual home care packages for nearly 20,000 older people. Its report, Reducing the cost of assessments and reviews, found that the cost of assessing and reviewing has increased over recent years.
Andy McKeon, managing director of the Audit Commission, said: “Assessments and reviews are a crucial element of social care, enabling individuals’ needs to be properly identified and met. However, our evidence suggests that councils can spend less and still do an excellent job in helping people receive the care that they need.
“As councils struggle to meet the needs of a growing older population with less cash, any opportunity to save money and redirect it into care should be pursued enthusiastically.” Among the Commission’s suggestions for reducing cost were matching staff more closely to workload and sharing costs with other councils.
But the Local Government Association last week criticised the report, responding that councils should see £50m in savings from a programme it set up.
“It would be wrong to suggest that efficiency savings alone will solve the immediate and growing funding crisis,” said Councillor David Rogers, chair of the LGA’s community wellbeing board.
“The cost of social care already takes up more than 40 per cent of council budgets. Yet councils, who are already facing an estimated £1 billion reduction in social care budgets, and this year will have to find an additional £890 million, will see a further £2 billion added to the annual cost of adult social care in 2015 due to demographic pressures alone.
“Local government is playing its part and it’s now vital that Government urgently addresses this widening gap. Gifts of extra cash here and there just paper over the ever-expanding cracks.”
