Working together - making a difference
DUDLEY ADULT SOCIAL CARE ANNUAL REPORT - 2018/19
How we have spent adult social care money
Reductions in funding to local authorities have required reductions in funding in adult social care over several years now. Despite the financial situation remaining fragile the volume of increasing demand for adult social care services have required an increase in net spending.
In the 2018/19 financial year spending increased by approximately 6 million pounds compared to the previous financial year. This is the highest net spend in the last 4 years and reverses the savings that have been made over the last 3 financial years.
Net Adult Social Care Spend - Dudley Council 2015/16 - 2018/19
Overall spend on care in 18-64 year olds £41,341,000 48%
and over 65 years olds £43,999,000 52%
This is is fairly even. This matches the pattern that has been established in previous years.
Gross care spend on adult social care
Care for people 18-64 years old
In 2018/19 Dudley Council spent £41,341,000 net on care for people aged 18-64 years old. This is an increase of almost £2.5 million compared to the previous year.
Compared to our nearest neighbours (a group of local authorities whose populations and environment are most similar to Dudley), Dudley spends significantly more money on providing long term care.
Spend on short term care for 18-64 year olds in Dudley Council is much lower than in our nearest neighbours. The trajectory of spend in Dudley and our nearest neighbours is similar with a slight increase in 2017/18 compared with 2016/17 followed by a similar sized decrease in 2018/19. Of Dudley and the other 15 most similar local authorities Dudley is ranked twelfth out of 16 in terms of net spend.
Looking at the ratio of spend between long term care and short term care for 18-64 year olds Dudley Council appears to be an outlier. In 2018/19 for every pound spent on short term care, £123.5 are spent on long term care. In two out of three years investigated Dudley is spending twice as much money on long term care than short term care compared to our nearest neighbours, the West Midlands and the England average. When looking at each of our nearest neighbour local authorities individually Dudley has the third highest ratio of long term care spend to short term care spend out of 16 local authorities compared.
The vast majority of spend by Dudley Council on care in people aged 18-64 is on long term care. Only 0.8% of spend is on short term care, the remaining 99.2% is on long term spend.
The vast majority of spend by Dudley Council on care in people aged 18-64 is on long term care. Only 0.8% of spend is on short term care, the remaining 99.2% is on long term spend.
As highlighted in the previous chart the majority of spend on 18-64 year olds is focused on long term care. When long term care spend is broken down into sub groups the area with the highest spend is long term learning disability support, 80% of the total 18-64 spend is on this group.
The next highest area of spend is long term physical support (11%) followed by long term mental health support (6%). The highest area of spend within short term care is short term physical support however this only accounts for 0.5% of the total Dudley council adult social care spend on 18-64 year olds.
Overall spend has increased in adult social care for the 18-64 year olds compared to the previous two years. The increase in spend is not universal across all areas of care however and some areas have seen declines in spend compared to 2016/17 which others have seen increases.
The largest value increase has been in long term learning disability support where funding has increased by £2,500,000 since 2016/17.
The area with the largest decline in spending is long term physical support, £338,000 less compared to two years ago.
The areas that have seen the highest percentage change in spending, short term sensory support, short term memory and cognition support and short term mental health support, however they are areas with very low spend.
Care in 18-64 Summary
The adult social care 18-64 year old spend has increased in Dudley since 2016/17 by £2,132,000. There have been increases in both long term care (£2.1 million) and short term care (£19,000), although short term care spend is lower than the previous year.
The vast majority of care spend on the 18-64 population in Dudley is focused on long term care, 99.2%. Of the long term care allocation the majority goes on care for learning disability support which has also seen the largest increase in spend since 2016/17.
Care for people aged 65 years and over
In 2018/19 Dudley Council spent £43,999,000 on short and long term care in people aged 65 years and over, an increase of £2,146,000 compared with 2017/18.
Spend on long term care for people aged 65 and over in Dudley has declined for 3 years in a row.
Historically Dudley has spent more money than the average of our nearest neighbours however with the decline in spending in Dudley and an increase in spending in our nearest neighbours the gap has closed and spend is now similar. When comparing Dudley’s spend against individual nearest neighbour local authorities we have fallen from being the sixth highest spender (in 2016/17) out of 16 local authorities, to being the 10th highest spender.
Adult Social Care in Dudley have been committing increasing resources for short term care in people aged 65 and over. In 2016/17 Dudley MBC had a higher level of spend compared to the average of our nearest neighbours. The level of spend has increased sharply over the last two year rising from just below £3,000,000 to £8,500,000 in two years.
The majority of the budget for care of people aged 65 years and over is spent on long term care, approximately £35.5 million (81% of care spend).
The remaining 19% of care spend in over 64 year olds is spent on short term care, just short of £8.5 million.
The two highest specific areas of care spend for residents aged 65 year and over in Dudley are long term and short term physical support.
Overall physical support spend accounts for 68.5% of the total budget.
Long term care for learning disabilities, memory and cognition, mental health and sensory support account for the majority of the remaining spend 30.5% of the budget. The final 1% is allocated to short term care spend for memory and cognition, sensory support and mental health support.
Over the last three years there has been a year on year increase in Dudley on spending in Adult Social Care for people aged 65 years and over. In 2016/17 total care spend on 65 year olds and over was £40,527,000, in 2018/19 spend in the same area was £43,999,000 a £3.5 million increase.
The increased budget has not resulted in an increase in spend in all of the areas in adult social care and some areas have been declines in spending.
The areas with the highest total increase in spending is short term physical support where the total spent has increased by almost £5.5 million between 2016/17 and 2018/19 a 68% increase. Short term learning disability support, short term mental health support and long term learning disability support have also seen increases.
Care in 65+ Summary
The adult social care 65+ year old spend has increased overall in Dudley since 2016/17 by £3,851,000. There has been a realignment of spend with decreases in long term care spend (almost £2 million) and increases in short term care spend (£5.8 million).
The decrease in long term care spend means that Dudley is now investing a similar amount to the average spend of our most comparable local authorities.
The sharp increase in short term care spend means that Dudley Council is now spending more money of short term care than any of our other nearest neighbours.
Between long term and short term care the majority of the resource is focused on physical support. 68.5% of the combined budget goes on this area. The remaining areas of long term care spend account for approximately 30.5% of the budget with the final percentage going to short term care.
Overall Summary
Spend in adult social care for people aged 18-64 and people aged 65 and over has increased in 2018/19 and is at its highest point over the last 4 years. Spend on care for 18-64 year olds and people aged 65 and over is fairly similar although the allocation of budget is very different.
Almost all the funding for care in 18-64 year olds goes on long term care, predominantly learning disability support but also long term physical support. Only a very small proportion of the budget is spent on short term care.
Adult social care spend in the 65 year old and over population is still skewed towards greater spend on long term care (approximately 80%) however not to the same degree as for 18-64 year olds. There has been a shift in allocation of funding with less being spent on long term care and more being spent on short term care.
Overall the largest area of spend in both short and long term care is physical support in which almost two thirds of the 65+ budget is spent.