Adult Social Care Services Charging Consultation

Overview

East Lothian Council has to save around £39 million over five years. Part of that saving has to come from the adult social care budget.

Adult social care (delivered by the East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership) provides a wide range of services to support a wide range of people, including older people, people with disabilities, people with mental health needs, and also carers. The support provided includes care at home, transport, meals at home and short breaks.

We have to make savings of £7.25 million in the adult social care budget over the next five years. This means that the council and East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership have to consider how they can:

• Reduce costs
• Increase income streams
• Do more with less
• Change the way in which we currently deliver our local services

One of the measures we have undertaken has been a review of charging for adult social care services. As a result, we will be increasing charges for some services, as well as introducing new charges.

In the light of new and increased charges, we are committed to ensuring that:

• Where a person really cannot meet charges, we will ensure robust financial assessment to work out what they can pay
• We will help people to maximise their income (in terms of allowances, benefits, etc).

You can find out more by reading the Charging for Adult Social Care Services - Overview document below.

You can then share your views by completing the online survey or by emailing comments to elhscp@eastlothian.gov.uk or by sending them to East Lothian Health & Social Care Partnership, Room 219, John Muir House, Brewery Park, Haddington, EH41 3HA

We are also running a series of meetings where attendees can talk to East Lothian Council Health and Social Care spokesperson, Councillor Fiona O'Donnell and East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership representatives about changes to charging. These meetings will be held as follows:

6th February, 6:30pm - 8pm at Fisherrow Community Centre, Musselburgh

8th February, 11:30am - 1:30pm, Port Seton Resource Centre

14th February, 6:30pm - 8pm, Community Hall, Nungate Centre, Haddington

Why your views matter

We are faced with a situation where we are going to have to charge more for some adult social care services and introduce charges for some services that are currently provided free of charge.  These increases and new charges will be implemented in the new financial year (from April 2018).  

Given that we have to do this, the purpose of this consultation to ask all East Lothian citizens, including service-users and carers, for their views. We also welcome views from third and independent sector partners. In addition, we will be seeking other appropriate consultation opportunities as they arise for service-users and carers.