Here's how Lancashire County Council will spend 'leftover' £30m - and why social care is a source of financial uncertainty
County Hall spent less than it planned lasy year - but it's not counting on being in the same position again
“This is not expected to be a good year, I expect us to have a very tough year - obviously, everybody knows that inflation is creeping upwards,“ deputy county council leader Alan Vincent said at a cabinet meeting in June. Residential and day care services for older people overspent against their budget by £3.8m during 2021/22, some of which was as a result of lower income generated by the authority’s own residential care homes - to the tune of £2.2m. As of last month, the facilities were accommodating 458 residents, when their collective capacity stands at just over 600.
Demand for nursing care has also failed to recover to pre-pandemic levels, leading to an underspend in that area of £4.1m. But there was an overspend on home care services of £5m, driven in part by difficulty in securing care packages from the county council’s usual ‘framework ‘ suppliers - meaning more expensive arrangements have had to be made with other providers. that it was difficult to predict the pressure on different types of social care against the current Covid backdrop.
In addition, from October 2023, private fee payers could be permitted to ask their local authority to arrange their care fro them – and so access the lower rates to which councils have access. In that scenario, councils may have to cover the losses of care providers.
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