Adult social care £51m cut plans in Birmingham

Plans to cut £51m from Birmingham City Council’s adult social care budget in the next 12 months have been announced.

The Conservative-Lib Dem coalition authority currently spends £293m a year on adult social care.

More than 14,000 adults in the city will have their social care needs reassessed. On 14 March proposed cuts to the budget will be voted on.

Care would not disappear “tomorrow”, the council said. Labour said “need” was not being considered.

Lib Dem councillor Sue Anderson said it would take 12 months “to work through”.

Labour councillor Anita Ward said: “They’re doing it from a financial perspective… They are cutting too fast, too quick and it’s going to have a very, very negative impact on the people that need us the most.”

The council pays for the care of people with critical or substantial needs.

It is thought 10,200 people in Birmingham who receive regular care paid for by the authority have critical needs, with a further 4,100 people on the lower “substantial” band. Under the plans, funding for the substantial group would be cut.