Question to Kent County Council [with answer], 17 May 2012: Home Based Care (Liberal Democrats on Kent County Council)

Liberal Democrats on Kent County Council <info@kentlibdems.org.uk>

Question to Kent County Council [with answer], 17 May 2012: Home Based Care

May 14, 2012 1:54 PM

Question by Mr D S Daley to the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care & Public Health

A recent Kent County Council (KCC) report states that vulnerable elderly people and disabled adults may have to stay home for longer instead of being moved into residential care. KCC will depend on voluntary and private sector providers, our 'Partners in the Community', to provide home based care for these vulnerable people whilst they await to move into residential care.

Can the Cabinet Member tell us what safety nets will be in place to guarantee appropriate daily care for those whose transfer is delayed; and as the predictions are that many more people will reach one hundred and be living alone (possibly without nearby relatives) how does he propose to address issues such as increasing vulnerability or isolation in his plans for transformation of KCC's involvement or responsibilities?

Answer

As members know, we will be discussing the Adult Social Care Transformation Programme today. Mr. Daley is incorrect in suggesting the report states that either:

1) adults may have to stay in their home for longer, or

2) vulnerable people will have to wait to move into residential care.

People want to stay in their own homes for longer and these changes will improve the availability of preventative services to allow people to do so. This includes further developing services tackling social isolation, which is a major contributory factor for why some people enter residential care.

This is about giving people, and their carers, options and choice over the support they require. We will maximise the opportunity for people to recover with enablement support so that they don't have to take long term care decisions at a point of crisis. Where people can't stay in their own home they will be given the support and information to fully consider the options available to them, including extra care housing as a real alternative to residential care. For some people residential care will be a positive choice and their admission will not be delayed.

As for 'depending on voluntary and private sector providers', this is how we already run social care. 90% of all provision is commissioned from the private and voluntary sector organisations. During 2010/11 they supported nearly 15,000 people at home and nearly 8,000 people in residential care.

I take our responsibilities to these vulnerable people very seriously and we work closely with providers to ensure that safeguarding remains the top priority. This is done through regular reviews, actively monitoring contracts and continually seeking to improve safeguarding. It is worth noting that, although there are nearly twice as many people supported at home compared to in residential care, in 2010/11, there were just 125 safeguarding alerts about home care staff compared to 425 about residential care staff.

People feel safer in their own homes. It is where most people want to be cared for and, quite rightly, the Transformation Programme will help more people achieve this.