• Home
  • About
  • Subscribe
  • LATIF
  • Conferences
  • Dashboard
  • Edit My Profile
  • Log In
  • Logout
  • Register
  • Edit this post

Room 151

  • 151 BRIEF

    What's New?

  • London CIV appoints Dean Bowden as CEO

    August 18, 2022

  • Coventry secures over £115m of funding to decarbonise transport system

    August 18, 2022

  • Bexley Pension Fund appoints responsible investment consultant

    August 17, 2022

  • Leeds’ £120m levelling up bids offers ‘transformational change’

    August 16, 2022

  • Social care workforce crisis ‘requires government intervention’

    August 15, 2022

  • Consultation opens on future of IFRS 9 statutory override

    August 12, 2022

  • Treasury
  • Technical
  • Funding
  • Resources
  • LGPS
  • Development
  • 151 News
  • Blogs
    • David Green
    • Agent 151
    • Dan Bates
    • Richard Harbord
    • Stephen Sheen
    • James Bevan
    • Steve Bishop
    • Cllr John Clancy
    • David Crum
    • Graham Liddell
    • Ian O’Donnell
    • Jackie Shute
  • Interviews
  • Briefs

Audit Commission identifies £300m of social care savings

0
  • by Jo Tura
  • in Funding
  • — 5 Sep, 2012

The 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.”

Share

You may also like...

  • Funding reforms pose a ‘threat’ to financial planning while some councils benefit 28th Jan, 2021
  • Warrington’s credit rating downgraded by Moody’s 3rd May, 2022
  • Financial pressures loom for 2023 and beyond 30th Mar, 2021
  • Back to the future for the PWLB 18th May, 2022

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

  • 151 BRIEFS – WHAT’s NEW?

    • London CIV appoints Dean Bowden as CEO
    • Coventry secures over £115m of funding to decarbonise transport system
    • Bexley Pension Fund appoints responsible investment consultant
    • Leeds’ £120m levelling up bids offers ‘transformational change’
    • Social care workforce crisis ‘requires government intervention’
  • Room151’s LGPS Roundtables

    Biodiversity
    Valuations & Risk
    LGPS Women

  • Room151’s LGPS Roundtables

    Biodiversity
    LGPS Women
    Valuations & Risk
  • Latest tweets

    Room151 9 hours ago

    Liverpool faces further government intervention as commissioners find ‘whole-council failure’: The levelling up secretary has announced that he is “minded to” expand intervention at Liverpool City Council by transferring the authority’s financial… dlvr.it/SWvgGc pic.twitter.com/cB7YeHZ9lE

    Room151 1 day ago

    Recovery position: withholding tax and the LGPS: Partner Content: Paul Sprenger from WTax talks to Room151 about how Local Government Pension Scheme funds could be missing out on millions of pounds of withholding tax recovery opportunities.… dlvr.it/SWsTfQ pic.twitter.com/z6aVMcaqHe

    Room151 2 days ago

    Treasurer societies favour permanent extension to IFRS 9 statutory override: Two treasurer society presidents have indicated their preference for the current five-year IFRS 9 statutory override to be made permanent following the government’s latest… dlvr.it/SWr3G4 pic.twitter.com/MGf9M5zC8Q

    Room151 2 days ago

    Luton Borough Council faces ‘grave’ £10m overspend: Luton Borough Council faces a £10m overspend in its 2022/23 budget which poses a “serious risk” to the authority’s financial sustainability. A report by Dev Gopal, director of finance, revenues[...] dlvr.it/SWmynD pic.twitter.com/ETDd7sQA48

    Room151 3 days ago

    Luton Borough Council faces ‘grave’ £10m overspend: Luton Borough Council faces a £10m overspend in its 2022/23 budget which poses a “serious risk” to the authority’s financial sustainability. room151.co.uk/funding/luton-… pic.twitter.com/XvyTZckW6m

    Room151 1 week ago

    LATIF/FDs’ Summit ‘on course to be biggest yet’: Room151’s flagship event – the Local Authority Treasurers Investment Forum (LATIF) and FDs’ Summit – is on course to be the biggest yet, with more than 200 delegates expected. Combining[...] dlvr.it/SWSDrL pic.twitter.com/f8FXzcAdWB

    Room151 1 week ago

    ‘Local government treated worse than any other part of public sector’: Clive Betts, chair of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee, talks to Mike Thatcher about lack of progress on levelling up, pork-barrel politics and why local government… dlvr.it/SWRk1L pic.twitter.com/Jpw0BsOsy3

    Room151 1 week ago

    Which LGPS pools and funds are attending the LGPS Investment Forum on Nov 2 & the LGPS Private Markets Forum on Nov 1st? Answer here: lnkd.in/eDHU8tuy pic.twitter.com/D3gd63Rh7F

    Room151 1 week ago

    LGPS and levelling up: nothing to fear but fear itself: There have been a number of objections to government plans for LGPS funds to invest 5% of their assets in local projects. But George Graham says these objections can be[...] dlvr.it/SWL7vt pic.twitter.com/ebwBEkZTy4

  • Register to become a Room151 user

  • Previous story Economic and market briefing – all eyes on Jackson Hole
  • Next story LGA urges ‘prudent councils’ to invest in infrastructure

© Copyright 2022 Room 151. Typegrid Theme by WPBandit.

0 shares