Which councils are best at supporting children with high needs?
Our Top 10 ranking of councils in relation to high needs has today been published by The MJ.
July 4, 2019
Last week ADASS published their annual adult social care budget survey. As usual it is a fantastic resource for those working to transform adult social care departments. It provides lots of statistics to help validate what we are seeing up and down the country, and a few surprises too.
It, of course, reinforces many of the reasons to be concerned about the future of adult social care. However, as I picked my top ten favourite stats this year, the biggest shock was that – amazingly – as many pointed to hope as to gloom.
The gloom:
- £941m savings are planned this year, a 7% reduction in last years’ outturn
- Only 31% of Directors are fully confident of this years’ savings, (compared to 45% last year) and dropping to 3% confident of 17/18 savings
- Whilst older people’s services have survived demographic pressures by providing service to 0.1% less people, the number of younger adults needing support increased 5% last year
- Despite shrinking budgets, almost half of Councils have been forced to raise provider fees by more than 3%
- In 59 councils at least one homecare provider and in 32 councils at least one residential/nursing care provider has cancelled their contract in the last 6 months
The glimmers of hope:
- All but eight councils were able to convince politicians/the public to invest in social care by implementing the social care precept
- The net adult social care budget for 16/17 is 98.7% of the outturn for 15/16
- 87% of Directors were content with their share of the Better Care Fund
- 14% report care and support has improved in their area in the last 12 months, compared to only 12% where it has got worse
And finally, 100% of Councils responded to the survey for the first time ever. A good sign that the sector realises how important it is to share this insight.
