Plaudits for social care in Carmarthenshire
Carmarthenshire has been judged as the council that is coping best with providing social care services against a background of national budget cuts.
Independent organisation Demos, in association with Scope – a charity for disabled people – has produced a league table after looking at all 22 Welsh local authorities.
Carmarthenshire County Council was ranked number one on the list, which was published online last week.
The assessments were based on a range of factors including budget changes to older people’s care and changes in user charges for various social services.
Speaking of the ranking, Bruce McLernon, director of social care, health and housing, said: “Despite the very difficult financial environment local authorities are working in, we in Carmarthenshire have continued to make social care a priority.
“An additional £3.4m was allocated for adult social care in 2011/12, and at the same time we have continued to develop a partnership strategy strongly geared towards working proactively with the independent and third sector to ensure that services are delivered efficiently and effectively.
“While concentrating our resources to develop innovative services for people with substantial and critical needs, we have made sure that people with low level needs are signposted to other services in the third sector.
“For example, the local authority has been able to transfer all its luncheon club and day club provision to the third sector where the services are being actively developed, and by doing so we have been able to redirect resources to frontline services including dementia and home care, where there continues to be highest demand.”
Independent organisation Demos, in association with Scope – a charity for disabled people – has produced a league table after looking at all 22 Welsh local authorities.
Carmarthenshire County Council was ranked number one on the list, which was published online last week.
The assessments were based on a range of factors including budget changes to older people’s care and changes in user charges for various social services.
Speaking of the ranking, Bruce McLernon, director of social care, health and housing, said: “Despite the very difficult financial environment local authorities are working in, we in Carmarthenshire have continued to make social care a priority.
“An additional £3.4m was allocated for adult social care in 2011/12, and at the same time we have continued to develop a partnership strategy strongly geared towards working proactively with the independent and third sector to ensure that services are delivered efficiently and effectively.
“While concentrating our resources to develop innovative services for people with substantial and critical needs, we have made sure that people with low level needs are signposted to other services in the third sector.
“For example, the local authority has been able to transfer all its luncheon club and day club provision to the third sector where the services are being actively developed, and by doing so we have been able to redirect resources to frontline services including dementia and home care, where there continues to be highest demand.”
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