Social care costs keep pinching West Berkshire Council budgets

West Berkshire’s council-run care homes have an overspend of £420,000.

Plus, there is another £648,000 at Willows Edge due to 13 per cent of posts being vacant and cover being required through agencies.

The home has a high proportion of high needs clients where additional care is required.

The overspend at Willows Edge is partially offset with underspends at Birchwood (£166,000) and Notrees (£62,000).

Following a consultation exercise for the council’s 2024/25 budget, the public were asked for their views on the closure or transfer to another provider of the Willows Edge Care Home.

Subsequently members have decided that they want to look to transfer both Willows Edge and Birchwood at the same time.

The current proposal is to award a contract in November 2024 with final transfer in March 2025.

There has also been an increase in transport costs from January 2024, costing £168,000 which is currently being investigated.

The council says there is still a national shortage of social workers, occupational therapists and carers and this is contributing to increased costs relating to staffing across some areas of adult social care (ASC).

Active work, led by the ASC workforce board, seeks to encourage new entrants into the workforce including “growing our own”.

This is in a national context of what the council calls “a very challenging workforce position as highlighted in the recent CQC Annual Report (‘State of Care’)”.