The Department of Social Care has recently received enquiries from the media concerning its expenditure on Social Services and the likely impact on services following the Budget. This is in light of cuts announced in Social Services in many UK local authorities. The Department’s policy is to ensure frontline services are maintained while reducing spending in such areas as administrative and support costs. At the same time, the Department faces many challenges, not least rising demand for its services. The Minister for Social Care Hon Martyn Quayle MHK commented: “In the last two years, a significant gap has emerged between the Isle of Man Government’s income and expenditure – as is the case in virtually every country in the developed world. Addressing this gap will involve difficult choices for the peoples and Governments concerned. In last month’s Budget, the Isle of Man Government showed its priorities by making cuts of up to 7% in certain Departments while seeking to minimise the impact on the services provided by the Departments of Health and Social Care. At the same time, the two Departments are expected to make savings and efficiencies. These savings will be delivered through a range of measures designed to protect frontline services wherever possible. The budgets for the key areas within Social Services for the year commencing 1 April 2011 will rise by 2.4% to take account of inflation and increasing demand for services. As Minister for Social Care, I will continue to do all in my power to minimise the impact on the most vulnerable in our community by protecting frontline services wherever possible.” The Department has a clear strategy to ensure adequate frontline services are maintained while reducing overall expenditure. This includes two key aspects: 1.Reducing administrative and support costs, and 2. Providing a wider range of services where the need is met with a suitable service whose costs are proportionate to need. Reducing administrative and support costs The Department has saved over ?1m in efficiency and related measures this financial year (to 31st March 2011) and is budgeted to save a further ?1m next financial year. This includes improving administrative processes and simplifying management structures by applying ‘Lean Management’ techniques. It also includes exiting some leased buildings and fitting more staff into Government-owned buildings to reduce premises costs. Furthermore, the Department will benefit from savings in back-office and procurement costs that are expected through the introduction of cross-Government Shared Services for all Departments for Finance, Procurement, Human Resources and Estates Management. This will deliver both reductions in staff costs and also savings in procurement costs through common sourcing strategies. This programme is expected to deliver ?m’s in further savings across Government over the next three years. Providing a wider range of services The Department is expanding its community based services which will enable both improved services and reductions in residential care costs. For Children’s Services, the Department is expanding its fostering service. Fostering is shown to deliver better outcomes for the young people concerned than residential care. Also it can cost a quarter of the cost of residential care. As a result, better care can be achieved at lower cost. This is expected to deliver over ?0.5m a year for the next three years through the closure of several small children’s residential homes. For Adults Services, the Department is expanding its Home Care services for both the disabled and older people. This will enable more people to remain in their home, which is the stated preference of the large majority of service users. Also Home Care can cost less than a quarter of the cost of residential care. The level of savings that can be achieved will be dependent on the reduction of residential care provided by the Department. This is subject to further consultation including with the private and third sector residential care providers to ensure there remains a good range of facilities available around the Island. Rising demand At the same time as seeking to contribute to Government’s overall financial savings, the Department is facing significant growth in demand for its services. The population of the Island continues to age rapidly: when the Department was formed on 1 April 2010, it was paying pensions to 17,000 people; today that figure is over 18,000. The number is forecast to rise by over half in the next 20 years, while the number of over 75s is expected to double over that period, creating additional demand for acute care services. Also the Island has experienced a marked rise in the number of children diagnosed with autism over the last ten years. These young people are now becoming adults so the Department is expanding its range of specialist services for this group, which can be very intensive and costly. In addition, the Department continues to experience a growth in demand for Mental Health Services. This is a key growing field internationally as clinicians and patients appreciate the value of specialist services to provide good mental health and so enable people to enjoy life to the full. It is worthy of note that the UK Government has highlighted mental health and anti-cancer drugs as the two key priorities for additional spending in health and social care. The Department is considering how it can accommodate these additional demands within its resources. In addition to the strategy outlined above, charges for certain services play a key role in enabling the Department to maintain its range and quality of those services concerned. The range of services which attract a charge is likely to increase for those people with the means to pay as part of the Department’s efforts to minimise cuts in frontline services. Social Security is also part of the Department and income-related benefits levels will be coordinated carefully with any changes to charges in order to ensure those on low incomes are not unfairly disadvantaged. Member for Social Services Mr Bill Malarkey MHK commented: “We are working extremely hard to manage the delicate balancing act of the need to control costs and deliver value for money with the need to provide an ever-wider range of social services to an ever-larger number of service users. This will be one of the key challenges for our community in the next few years.” ENDS