Councillor accuses Derbyshire council committee of failing to answer concerns over planned care cuts

Cllr Ruth George questioned council officers at a recent scrutiny meeting overseeing public consultation report results into four proposals for the redesign of elderly care services, its learning disability and autism service, and the review and redesign of its Healthy Home Project and potentially stopping Discretionary Grant Funding.

The Conservative-controlled council is considering closing nine care homes and some day centres for the elderly, bringing a potential end to some Short Break units and Day Opportunity centre support services for adults with learning disabilities, the withdrawal of over £1m for community and voluntary groups, and decommissioning the Healthy Home Project before handing over this service to a third party.

Cllr George said: “There are no reassurances for people out there or from any of the assurances we have been given today.

“We do not have facts or figures, however, we only have broad overviews given to the council and nothing by way of reassurances. Personally, I do not think we have been given any of this at Scrutiny.

“We have had some wording back to say it’s been taken into account but we have not had answers to these questions.”

Cllr George argued the Scrutiny meeting had not been an adequate process and it had not answered questions with factual answers that thousands of people have asked about the services facing proposed reviews, redesign and effectively potential discontinuation and cutbacks.

Officers outlined the public consultations, responses, and themes concerning the four proposals yet to be decided upon by the council’s Cabinet.

Scrutiny Committee Chairperson Cllr Kewall Singh Athwal stressed the meeting was about the consultations, that questions had been answered and that the proposals will be going to a Cabinet meeting for further consideration.

Derbyshire County Council’s adult care proposals include possibly closing nine of the council’s 16 elderly residential care homes to save over £5.2m as well as eight older people day centres to save £1.3m to help balance its budget with a new focus to be placed on services for people with dementia and their carers.

Council officer Lisa Holland told the scrutiny meeting 1,742 people had responded to the consultation concerning the care homes and that the council had received seven petitions with a range from 22 to 5,485 signatures.

She added that concerns that emerged included the impact upon people already living in care homes, changes to centres and carer respite, alternative provision and the quality of alternative provision.

In response to questions from Cllr George, Ms Holland said that concerning Day Centres there would be no impact upon a person’s individual budget by any changes and the council aims to maintain its focus on carer respite.

She added that if anyone has to move to another care home the council is not anticipating that they will be worse off, that it is not expecting people to have to incur a financial cost and it has a responsibility to ensure that there is market and choice of alternative homes.

The council is also considering proposed options to redesign how it provides Day Opportunity centres and Short Break residential units for adults with learning disabilities and or autism with proposals including discontinuing some Day Centres and some residential Short Break units.

Miss Holland said 324 people responded to this consultation on the proposed Learning Disability and Autism Service Redesign and the concerns that emerged included the impact of changes to services, alternative provision, the quality of alternative provision and the importance of respite and Short Breaks to support carers.

Responding to questions from Cllr George, she said the council would not rule out prescribing alternative services but any payments will not include transport and any impact will be explored with a quality impact assessment and the financial costs will be tracked.

The future of two types of Discretionary Grant Funding handouts for 50 community groups are also under consideration to save over £1m including Adult Social Care Discretionary Grant Funding and Corporate Services and Transformation Discretionary Grant Funding.

A council officer said the council received 1.374 consultation responses with the proposals to cease Discretionary Grant Funding and he stressed the council does not have a specific statutory duty to offer grant funding to these relevant organisations.

He explained that the main concerns expressed in the consultation were the potential impact on elderly people in rural areas and the impact on mental health and well-being, costs and the sustainable future of organisations without the funding.

The officer also explained that it is not the case that these grants provide 100per cent of the income for the recipient organisations and there are alternative forms of funding available for these groups.

But Reform UK Group Leader, Cllr Philip Rose, said: “By taking away Discretionary Grants we are going to find there are gaps in the system that are not going to be covered and we are going to create more problems.”

The council is also considering redesigning its Healthy Home Project which supports timely hospital discharges and reduces the risk of readmissions.

Proposed changes include remodelling the Healthy Home Project with new eligibility criteria, working more with district and borough councils, or decommissioning the service and passing it to a third party.

A council report and a council officer stated that 126 people responded to the consultation on the review and redesign of the Derbyshire Healthy Home Project.

Concerns expressed in the consultation included eligibility, delays in discharging hospital patients home, the potential end of the service, the impact upon people with low income and disabilities, as well as health and housing concerns, and any new third party costs.

Cllr George was concerned that all four reports will have an impact upon each other but she was told there would be no combined impact assessment, however a council officer stressed there would be individual assessments and there will be a joint report on Adult Social Care.

Ms Holland also said each proposal will be brought to a Cabinet meeting on the same day and all the officers have worked closely together even though each report is a different piece of work.

But Cllr George said: “As a responsible committee we are supposed to be getting factual answers and we are not really getting factual answers back.”

However, Scrutiny meeting Chairperson Cllr Athwal said: “I feel the officers have answered the questions as far as they can.”

Cllr Rose added: “I have to support Cllr George. I do feel the pain of the officers. I feel all we can do is note it but I feel I am none the wiser.”

Cllr George argued the Scrutiny committee had not presented a desired level of detail or included a robust analysis with evidence from a quality impact assessment but Cllr Athwal stressed the reports make it clear the scrutiny committee’s discussion concerned the public consultations.

The Scrutiny Committee approved and noted the responses to the public consultations at the meeting on October 30 on each of the four reports’ proposals to be presented to the Cabinet meeting which is due to consider each matter on November 14.

Derbyshire County Council has stated it is addressing overall saving proposals to meet an estimated budget deficit of over £39m for the 2024/25 financial year after it stressed it has struggled with reduced Government funding, the impact from the Covid-19 pandemic, high inflation, rising costs, the cost of living crisis, and a growing demand on services.