NO day care or respite care centres are due to close under Kirklees Council’s massive social care overhaul.
But around 8,000 adults will be reassessed by the council’s 400 social workers over the next 12 months – and some will lose out on the services they now receive.
Kirklees councillors last week controversially voted to only allow help for people deemed to be in critical need of social care and take it away from those classed as in substantial need.
There are 8,000 people now in these two categories.
Although some will lose out, Director for Wellbeing and Communities Merran McRae says that no-one who is reassessed will be left without some support.
“We will not walk away from anybody and leave them unsupported,’’ she pledged. “We won’t leave people with nothing.’’
This will mean looking for other events and organisations in the area where they live to give them some support and a social life. Kirklees Council’s Gateway To Care will help them with this.
Ms McRae added: “I genuinely think this is manageable and it won’t be thousands who will lose out. I do think it will work, but it will take time and will need an awful lot of management and support.
“We are trying to ‘futureproof’ the social care system as there will always be people with complex and critical needs. That number is growing and in Kirklees the number with learning difficulties is higher than the national average.”
She said that if steps were not taken now the service would run out of money and reach a crisis point in just a few years with people classed as critical not getting they support they would need.
Adults in need of social care are now categorised as critical, substantial, moderate or low. People in moderate or low do not get financial help to use council services such as day centres, but those in substantial and critical have done.
That will now change and only those said to be in critical need will be eligible for funding.
Critical means where life is or will be threatened without that support or the person has significant health problems. The person will also be unable to carry out vital personal care.
Substantial does not include life being threatened or significant health problems, but the people will still not be able to carry out the majority of their own personal care.
The council has discretionary powers so those classed in the ‘top end’ of substantial may be assessed as ‘critical’ if they would be likely to become so.
This change in eligibility should save around £2m a year over the next three years – and this figure takes into account people stopped from falling into critical need by early intervention.
Ms McRae says Kirklees Council – unlike some others – was looking at the next three years of cuts which means £20m needs to be sliced from the £129m budget for Well-Being and Communities which includes adult social care by 2013/14.
The main thrust of the savings will be done by Kirklees working more closely with health services to share both management and some frontline services to cut both unnecessary duplication and costs. This alone could save as much as £7m over the next three years.
This also may include more health involvement in day centres for people with dementia like The Homestead in Almondbury and Knowle Park House in Mirfield day centres along with Highfields Centre for people with complex needs.
Ms McRae said: “There are a lot of artificial barriers between social care and health and we can look at providing more generic posts between then two.”
And she added: “What we are doing now, other authorities will have to do in the future.”
