Elderly in Yorkshire facing bills for vital care

Town halls say they are battling a storm of funding cuts and increased demand and some are considering closing care homes, moving services to private sector providers and charging for meals-on-wheels or transport.

Subsidised non-residential adult social care could soon be means tested and health services merged to cut jobs.

Leeds City Council is facing increased spending commitments in adult social care of more than 16m, while North Yorkshire County Council said its adult and community services (ACS) directorate had to save 20.5m by March 2015.

Council chiefs in Leeds, one of the few authorities to discuss its plans with council tax-payers, are considering a range of tough measures they claim will protect the most vulnerable.

The council has 19 residential care homes and admits most are in need of refurbishment, requiring investment that is not available.

They are considering removing subsidies on charges for non-residential adult social care services, and warn that keeping all 16 day centres open is "not an option".

The deputy director for adult social care, John England, said: "We are getting a strong message from the public that they want to see people who can afford more, pay for their services.

"The meals-on-wheels service is currently subsidised, charges for that service for some people is one of the options being considered, transport is another one as well as services at day centres."

Mr England said care homes were being assessed, and some will be closed. The assessment is due to be completed by March next year. It is understood around a third of elderly people currently using free services could be asked to pay an amount calculated by a means test.

The executive member for adult social care, Lucinda Yeadon, said: "We are facing some really difficult decisions in adult social care, as the number of older people in the city continues to grow and our budgets continue to be squeezed.

"It is simply not an option to do nothing. We need to make decisions now so that we have the right support in place to take care of our most vulnerable adults, and help more able people to live independently for as long as possible. We realise these proposals may worry some of our customers, which is why we will consult before any final decisions are made."

The authority is also looking to merge departments which currently overlap with those in the NHS. Mr England said: "Having different organisations delivering different services responding to the same patient does not make sense.

"We are looking at making sure these services are joined up, duplication of work is stopped and hopefully layers of unnecessary bureaucracy removed."

North Yorkshire's executive member for ACS, Chris Metcalfe, said "drastic action" was required, although the authority cannot provide details of the cuts that will be needed. Draft plans have outlined savings of at least 1m and the axing of 130 jobs.

The corporate director of ACS, Derek Law, said: "Is it possible to protect the same number of vulnerable adults and children in North Yorkshire communities for less money? The honest answer is probably not, but we can minimise the damaging impact if we think and behave differently."

Rotherham Council said there were currently no plans to remove subsidies for non-residential adult social care services, A spokeswoman for York said there were no plans to close any care homes or day centres.