Brighton and Hove social care chief offers reassurance on residential care

Vulnerable adults who need residential care in Brighton and Hove will not be turned away, according to the council’s head of social care.

Denise D’Souza, executive director of adult services, spoke after councillors and health officials were briefed about a forecast overspend.

They were told that the budget for adult social care was on track to be overspent by £2.6 million.

Councillor Anne Meadows said at a meeting at Hove Town Hall: “Placements are being managed to contain the potential overspend. Are we leaving people in unsatisfactory accommodation?”

Mrs D’Souza said: “We wouldn’t leave people at risk. If somebody needs a residential placement, they’ll get that.”

The meeting of the Brighton and Hove City Council Adult Care and Health Committee was told that it was taking longer than expected for the benefit of planned savings to come through.

Most of the forecast budget overspend related to older people.

But £730,000 related to the community care budget for under 65s. This was “due to several large packages of care being agreed”, the meeting was told.

A report to the committee said: “The underlying pressure is largely due to the full-year effect of the increased complexity (eg, acquired brain injury) in small numbers of high-cost placements.”

A further concern related to the recent transfer of responsibility for public health from the National Health Service to councils as part of the government’s NHS reforms.

The report said: “There is a dispute between local authorities and Public Health England in relation to prescribing costs.

“The potential financial risk to this council is circa £1 million.

“Discussions are being held at a regional level to resolve this dispute.”

Joint working between the council and NHS trusts looked likely to lead to a £289,000 overspend, councillors were told.

Finance officer Anne Silley said that more people needed placements than had been budgeted for and that those placements were proving to be more expensive than expected.

She said that 9 per cent more people had needed mental health care, for example.

Mrs D’Souza said that funding had been allocated for a rise in the number needing care but the numbers had been higher than expected.

Councillor Mary Mears asked about the Integrated Community Equipment Service (ICES), which was forecast to overspend by £61,000.

She said that she had visited the ICES premises with fellow councillors and heard that they were dealing with nearly 20,000 clients.

She set out concerns about the “recycling” of equipment such as crutches.

At the previous meeting of the committee, Councillor Mears highlighted how difficult it was to return equipment.

This afternoon (Monday 25 November) she said: “What became clear (during the visit to the ICES premises) was that the report we were given around the recycling figures were not correct.”

Councillor Rob Jarrett, who chairs the committee, said: “There will be another report coming to this committee about that.”

A decision about whether to outsource the service is being discussed with West Sussex County Council with a view to working together on a joint tender.