BBC CWR interviews: adult services
Dr Graeme Betts is the strategic director for Adult, Health and Community Services with Warwickshire County Council. He has spoken to BBC Coventry and Warwickshire in one of a series of interviews with county council officers about how the authority is making important budget decisions.
Dr Betts oversees the directorate with responsibility for adult social care. Specifically, the council looks to achieve the best quality of life for older people and adults with disabilities in Warwickshire. The Low Level and Day Care Services Review has been driven by increased demographic pressures and how the government has changed the way in which people will commission their support in the future.
The county council has to ensure that services are sustainable, efficient and prioritise those with substantial or critical needs. So whilst some services will be decommissioned, specialist day care contracts will need to be developed to respond to those in greatest need such as those with higher levels of dementia.
Additionally, as the national Personalisation Initiative is rolled out within Warwickshire, customers will be offered direct payments and personalised budgets so that the customer, rather than social services, can chose the service they require from their local communities.
This will mean that the traditional block contracting and grant arrangements for these services will no longer be possible as customers decide how the money is spent.
In his interview with BBC Coventry and Warwickshire, Dr Betts spoke of the council is balancing budget pressures with the need for customers to have a service that best suits them. said: “We’re going through a process of reviewing our services, particularly when put in the context of personalisation which is the big driver within adult social care…and that’s to give people independence, choice and control. What you’re beginning to see is (people being asked) ‘Do you want to use your personal budget to purchase a new type of service or a more traditional service that you’re more accustomed to?“
“But that does mean, inevitably, that some people may choose to go to a new service which means we have to decommission other services that we’ve used in the past.
“But, to be absolutely clear about this, the people that use our services, they’re the key people and it’s down to them to make that choice.”
The interview with Dr Betts is part of a series of interviews with Warwickshire County Council officers as part of the BBC’s national campaign highlighting the pressures faced by local authorities as they set their budgets for the forthcoming year.