Decision on adult social care put on hold - until March
PLANS to privatise adult social care in the county have been temporarily put on hold following a big response to the consultation.
Such has been the response that Lincolnshire County Council has decided to put back the date when a final decision will be made until next month.
People using county council-run day centres, supported living and short break facilities have returned more than 550 questionnaires and over 50 letters giving their views on proposals for the future of the service.
The council is compiling all the views into a report, together with feedback from over 60 consultation events, staff, petitions and one-to-one feedback sessions and a report from an independent advocacy service which ran a series of focus groups in conjunction with county carers.
The report will go to the Adults Scrutiny Committee later this month before being presented at the executive meeting on March 6 for a decision.
Coun Graham Marsh, executive member for adult social care, said:
“We said at the start of the consultation that we were keen to hear everyone’s views and that nothing was off the table. We’ve been delighted to receive unprecedented levels of feedback and thank everyone for their contribution.
“As a consequence, adult social care is being allowed more time to give proper consideration of every view and to ensure thorough analysis of the findings.
“The review has been prompted by people moving on to the national Personal Budget scheme and we’re seeing more and more choosing to spend their money on things better-tailored to their individual needs. This means we need to look again at how we deliver our own directly provided services, as they quickly become less cost-efficient for the taxpayer.
“This needs to happen in a market where service users are the discerning customer, not a block-purchasing local authority, and the consultation will allow us to fully evaluate the impact of any changes and help us make a fully informed decision.”
l Let us know your views. Email john.lavery@jpress.co.uk
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