Social care chief at council warns cuts are ‘unavoidable’

A public consultation was launched yesterday by Conservative-controlled North Yorkshire County Council over proposals which could see up to £2m shaved off the authority’s annual social care budget of £140m.

The executive member for adult social care, Coun Clare Wood, said while every effort would be made to maintain the level of services wherever possible, a major revamp of the eligibility criteria is needed to cope with reductions in funding from Westminster.

She said: “We cannot keep the status quo, and we are not shying away from the challenges we are facing. But people do need to realise that there will be some changes which are unavoidable.”

The plans will see the withdrawal of social care support for more than 1,000 people as the council aids people judged to have “substantial” needs rather than just “moderate”. But Coun Wood stressed the move would bring the council in line with 87 per cent of other authorities nationally. The council is currently one of only a handful of authorities which makes social care support available to people judged to have “moderate” needs.

The Yorkshire Post revealed in July that the council is faced with having to enforce cuts totalling nearly £160m by 2018/19 – almost a third less than the overall revenue budget it had only eight years previously.