Finance
Social Care is funded from taxpayers, via allocations from Central Government and also from contributions to services from some individuals. As such local authorities have a responsibility to ensure that all income is utilised to deliver services which are both cost effective and efficient. Darlington Borough Council does this by ensuring that services are regularly monitored and reviewed and are able to clearly demonstrate Value for Money (VFM).
Demand from both an increasing ageing population and individuals with complex needs places significant challenges on the Council to meet this demand from within existing resources. This will only be achieved by demand management, strengths-based assessments, and service redesign.
This section provides further detail on how Darlington has spent its adult social care budget over recent years. The expenditure data can be broken down using filters by Age Groups, Service types and Primary Support Reasons.
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Integrated Adults and Social Care Approach to the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS)
The overall position for Integrated Adults and Social Care Services is detailed in the table below which demonstrates gross pressures from fee increase of £14.949m and demand pressures of £7.448m over the next 5 years. This is total pressures of £22.397m.
The planned interventions will reduce this combined pressure by £10.570m.
Delivery of the interventions will be monitored through the action plan underpinning the Integrated Adults and Social Care Services Living Thriving Lives Plan and also through robust budget and performance monitoring.
The interventions are focussed around 4 key areas:
- Remodelling of home care and a reduction in residential care admissions using MSIF funding to support the new model.
- Reduction in demand – linked to preventative actions set out in the strategy
- Inclusion of client income in the calculation of fee increase – in prior years this income has been either used to offset any additional fee pressures above the MTFS calculations or incorporated as a saving from fees and charges.
- Assuming Better Care Fund increased income can offset a proportion of inflation pressures. This is a top slice of the funding to meet pressures associated with BCF schemes rather than it being invested in completely new schemes.
Last updated 3rd June 2024
Adult Social Care is funded through council budgets that are reviewed regularly to focus on priority spend areas, with those priorities based on the commissioning intentions highlighted earlier.
Budgets continue to be a challenge, however, the council continues to prioritise services for vulnerable people.
We would encourage providers coming into this marker to provide innovative and collaborative solutions to meet our residents needs in imaginative, safe and effective ways.
The council’s medium term financial strategy is provided here. This tool provides an analysis of spend over the previous 5 years, including breakdowns across service types.
Local authorities are funded by the taxpayer, they receive income from services they deliver and have a duty to ensure that any income is spent in the most beneficial way for the local population.
This section provides further detail on how Middlesbrough has spent its social care budget over recent years.