Cutting the number of staff in social services is no longer an option to save cash, Caerphilly County Borough Council has been warned.
Over the last five years 134 full-time posts have been cut from the department – the equivalent of just under 5,000 staff hours per week.
Penning a report to the council’s health, social care and wellbeing scrutiny committee, interim financial services manager Mike Jones said: “The savings identified have been delivered through a combination of budget realignment, back office efficiencies and service redesign.
“[This] has had very little impact upon the services received by the public.”
The council has now been warned that such cost-cutting methods have now become “exhausted” and some “very difficult decisions” lie ahead to deliver further savings.
The council says an “unprecedented period of ongoing austerity” forced by UK Government, led to cuts in Welsh Government funding of £45.6 million between 2014/15 and 2017/18.
Social services accounted for 17% – £7.7 million – of total savings delivered across the authority during those four years.
A further £1.3m has been cut from the 2018/19 budget, meaning more than £9m has been cut from the council’s social services budget since 2014.
Officers are expecting increased demand on its social services team because of an ageing population and “increasingly complex and challenging needs” of children and vulnerable adults.
Council tax for 2018/19 was increased by 4.5%, which the council say helped to reduce a funding gap from £9.7m to £6.7 million for the year.
A medium term financial plan (MTFP) presented to the council in February showed that £1.5m must be invested into social services in each of the next four years.
With Welsh Government funding unlikely to increase, the council is also assuming a 1% cut in 2019/2020 and a 0.5% cut in each of the following three financial years to 2022/23.
This means that the council will need to deliver savings of £34m.
Another story and more cuts from this circus of a council. I’m sorry you can’t blame the UK government for these cuts, it’s Caerphilly council fault for not managing their budget correctly. Between the pay scandal and funding useless departments like the council wardens. Key services were bound to be cut. Some uneducated people will say a merger will be good and stop this happening they need to think again, because a merger will cost us the tax payer a lot of money.
Why should any one council department be spared cuts over any other department ? – surely these cuts are a financial decision and therefore cuts should be across all departments.
The first cuts should be to things like events and services /departments that the council have no legal duty to provide.
This would mean that essential services would be the last to suffer cuts !
This is good financial and management practice – both of which are sadly lacking in this council.
I would like to know what are the essential service, they have to supply and the non essential ones. The public can then see what needs to be cut. Councillors are elected to serve the people, unfortunately out councillors have lost their way and are behaving like dictators, knowing they can do anything and still get elected. Advisors in the council must also shoulder the blame for this, surely there are other departments that can be cut first.
Good idea – let’s have that list so residents can see how our council tax is being spent – on services/ departments that are not essential.