Doncaster's adult care shake-up approved by cabinet

Doncaster Council is now set to introduce a complete overhaul of its adult social care services after cabinet members unanimously approved the plans – dubbed the ‘transformation programme’.

As part of the new programme, the local authority has said it will aim to help people to live at home for longer, with residential care ‘a last resort, not the default position’.

Mayor of Doncaster Ros Jones told the cabinet meeting: “The transformation programme will help to protect and support older and vulnerable people in Doncaster by ensuring our care system is fit for the future and affordable.

“With rising demand for those services we know that the historic way of doing things is not sustainable with a reduced budget.

“This is not simply about money, we know that people want to stay in their own homes.

“We must offer that opportunity with methods of care that mean we work with people to help them stay as fit as possible for as long as possible.”

The move comes after the council confirmed that it is set to slash its adult social care budget by £3.1 million over the next financial year.

It is hoped the savings will be achieved through making necessary alterations to properties and ‘making better use of new technology’ to allow people to stay in their own homes for as long as possible.

The money will be cut from the council’s £140 million adult social care budget, which is about one-third of the council’s entire annual revenue budget.

In addition, the local authority expects to be spending £268m less every year on public services by 2020 when compared to 2010 as a result of cuts from central government.

Under the programme, the council aims to reduce the number of older and vulnerable people entering residential care by 119 over the next year.

According to calculations made by the council, there will be around 10,000 more people aged over 65 living in Doncaster by 2020

Documents that went before the council stated that if it fails to modernise its approach to adult social care, it could result in the authority not being able to effectively support older and vulnerable people in Doncaster in the future.