“Overgenerous” care packages under review in Stirling

“Overgenerous” care packages for adults with learning disabilities are being clawed back to help cut a projected £1.4 million overspend in Stirling Council’s social services budget.

The overspend includes £500,00 for children’s and £900,000 for adults’ social services. In adults, £250,000 is for older people’s services and £900,000 for learning disability services (offset by £250,000 savings such as delays in filling vacant posts).

Within children’s services it is said to be caused by increased and more complex external placements plus added staff costs.

Within adult learning disability services, the overspend is put down to a small unumber of recent unexpected high cost packages plus new clients.

Officials outlined to the finance committee work underway to review care packages for adult learning disability clients to bring them in line with council criteria. Around 50 of the 300 clients have already been reviewed.

Committee chair Councillor Neil Benny said: “The level of detail coming out gives us assurance the management team is working hard to reel back this overspend, although it is still significant.”

Officials said: “The review of adult learning disability packages should close the gap because it will be modelled on the council’s eligibility criteria. In the past we have been overgenerous to this particular client group. Some individuals have been provided with a service or support they wouldn’t necessarily have been given if they were an older person for example. We are looking at achieving the same outcomes with a different service delivery model.”

Councillor Benny said: “There is an issue here in terms of existing clients and families may have expectations of care packages which are beyond the council’s current criteria. A new person coming in I imagine would be looked at within the council’s current criteria.”

Officials said factors in managing any changes meant they could not predict how long the review of would take, adding: “We also have a learning disability redesign underway and will review all service users regardless of what we currently provide. We have historically put service users in expensive placements outside our area without necessarily looking at what we can provide locally.”

Councillor Margaret Brisley said: “New clients may come in, but others come to adult services from children’s services where they have had quite extensive packages, but parents’ expectations are still there. We are still in the position of managing down the expectation. I have been involved in weekly meetings with senior management and know how hard they are working. I’m reassured they are doing all they can without having a major impact on our most vulnerable. Most is service redesign.”

Councillor John Hendry said: “We don’t want people to lose quality of care and support. Unfortunately historic costs are because of error and we are having to correct that.”

Work is also ongoing to manage higher than targeted absence rates in social services, said to be “notable financially, operationally, and in terms of culture and morale”.