SOCIAL care bosses are reviewing their services in York, to try to balance their books.

The health and adult social care department at City of York Council predicts a 2016/17 overspend of £2 million and a report looks at ways to reduce it.

Some of the key predicted overspends are due to increased residential placements, amounting to £487,000, and delays in transferring people with learning disabilities into supported living, costing £160,000. The older people’s homes budget is due to overspend by £422,000, due in part to a higher number of empty beds than expected and higher staffing costs, partly due to an increased use of casual staff.

Among the suggestions to rein in spending, the council is considering reviewing the amount paid in direct payments, which are given to people so they can decide how to meet their own care needs, and considering reductions in the case of unspent balances, and reviewing the level of care packages offered to people after they have adapted to an illness or disability.

York Press:

The council could also make sure its vacant beds for older people are being used in order to reduce requirements for private placements, and could freeze recruitment to vacancies wherever possible.

The entire gross expenditure budget for health and adult social care is £81.6 million.

The report, due to be presented to the health and adult social care policy and scrutiny committee on Wednesday, states that the budget for 2016/17 includes a requirement to make savings of £3 million from work being “undertaken on service provision”.

Savings of £1,942,000 have been made, leaving a shortfall of just over £1 million, although plans are in place to deliver “almost all the shortfall”.

Earlier this week, The Press revealed plans for an overhaul of older people’s care in York, as council bosses try to save money. Residents will be encouraged to manage their own care for longer and care recipients will also be asked to make more use of the internet.

Care bosses say that as the numbers of older people in York grow and grow, they want to stop waiting for people to get to crisis before offering help, and instead pour more resources into making people “resilient” and able to stay in their own homes, caring for themselves for longer.