Plans have been approved to change how social care works in Ceredigion to help residents have a better quality of life. The plans aim to help people at an earlier stage to help them stay active for longer.
The preventative approach is also designed to use strained council budgets more effectively.
The budget for 2019-2020 was approved by Ceredigion County Council on 21 February 2019.
Increasing care needs and reducing budgets are putting Ceredigion County Council’s adult social care budgets under severe pressure. The budget plans to save £2.1m from adult social care services.
Councillor Alun Williams is the Cabinet Member responsible for Adult Services. He said, “We intend to change how we work in order to start helping people sooner, rather than waiting until a later stage when they may have higher care needs. By working in this way, and investing in prevention, people are likely to have a better quality of life for longer and this will bring the additional benefit of saving overall resources.”
“There is no doubt that council budgets are under a lot of pressure. We need to balance the need imposed on us to save money with the priority of improving the quality of life of our population. Our new plans are intended to do just that: to help people to improve and use budgets in the most effective way.”
“Our priority is always the safety and wellbeing of our residents. Although we are planning to spend more on helping people sooner, we will still make sure that those residents who do need a high level of care will still be well looked after.”
The council’s early intervention focus is already taking shape. The new Porth y Gymuned service has four Community Connectors who help people find the support they need in the community without having to wait until they have high enough care needs to be eligible for full social care.
21/02/2019