Cllr Jerry Wickham Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, Public Health and Public Protection. One of Wiltshire Council’s strategic prioirtities is to protect the vulnerable in our communities and one important thread in this is the provison of Adult Social Care. The Council’s approach to tackling the growing challenge of meeting demands on adult social care.
Minutes:
One of Wiltshire Council’s strategic priorities is to protect the vulnerable within the community, and one important thread in providing this is the provision of Adult Social Care. Cllr Jerry Wickham, Cabinet Member for Adult Social care and Public Protection gave a presentation, some of the key points were:
· In Wiltshire the average life expectancy for a man is 81, down in the south of the county it is 83, for women the average is 84, and in the south it is 88.
· The important thing is to have a healthy life. The average age to encounter a health problem, for men is 64 and women 67.
· We have a time bomb, with more and more people moving in to those age categories, this is an issue that WC has to address.
· £20 billion is given to the NHS over a period of years, whereas local councils got nothing.
· The pressure is on in terms of how we pay for adult social care. 38p from every £1 collected in council tax will be spent on Adult Social Care, in Wiltshire we are already spending that.
· The Council has a business plan, one of our main aims set out in the plan is to protect children and the vulnerable.
· We are limited in what we can do to squeeze the budgets. A survey stated that in Wiltshire, we were third best at hourly pay for care workers across the country. We struggle to get enough care workers, especially in this part of the County.
· We are trying to keep as many people as possible at home, as we know that people do better in their own homes.
· In 2017/18, there were 1,722 individuals in residential and nursing care, with 811 service users receiving a direct payment. 6,811 individuals received a social care service. 557 individuals living in extra care or supported living placements. 9,449 requests for adult social care support of which 5,240 resulted in no further support.
Questions included:
· Over half of the people that come for services do not need it and waste time, do these people deteriorate quickly and then become costlier to care for? Answer: We cannot afford the gold standard anymore, so if you were a self-funder, you would be signposted off to somewhere you can get your own care. Where there is a need for someone to be assessed they will be.
· When someone is in a home, and they run out of money, or get down to the last £23.5k, and then there is a short fall due to the room they are in, would they be prevented from using their own money to top up? Answer: There is a new charging policy. If you are in a residential home, then all of your assets are included. There is also a middle bracket of people whose families are topping up.
· A when it comes to the more critical side of things we have the trust. We work closely with groups, but no doubt that more money could be spent on mental health. The closing of Fountain Way in Salisbury and the moving people in custody with mental health issues to Devizes now. Answer: We are in a position of trying to split our money accordingly, always trying to make things more efficient.