Peterborough: 'The council will sometimes be saying no to care'

Peterborough City Council hopes to manage demand down for social care in the area

A cash-strapped council will be "saying no sometimes" and wants residents to take more responsibility for relatives' social care, its leader said.

Peterborough City Council has a £27m budget gap for 2022/23 and has proposed £10m of cuts and savings.

Earlier this month, the authority received a warning from the local government minister because of the state of its finances.

Council leader Wayne Fitzgerald said he wanted to manage care "demand" down.

Peterborough was one of four councils in England that the government agreed could be given emergency funding because they were unable to balance their books.

A review by an external team found the financial challenges at Peterborough City Council were "significant and urgent".

Peterborough City Council leader Wayne Fitzgerald said the council was considering several options to raise more money

Conservative Mr Fitzgerald said the council was looking at all options to raise money, including council tax rises.

"People have to realise if they want or expect good services then they have to be paid for," he said.

'In deep trouble'

Social care for children and adults accounts for more than 65% of Peterborough City Council's budget, and Mr Fitzgerald said he wanted to reduce demand on the services.

He said: "Managing demand down simply means saying no sometimes or pointing them to a different outlet or asking their family to step up to the plate, where perhaps before we would have been more generous.

"There are certain communities within the city where you'll never find their relatives in a care home, because they look to their own family first for that help and support within their own network of friends and community.

"Quite often, many people here don't, they turn to the council or the state, rather than taking responsibility.

"It's your mum, it's your nan, it's your grandad; they should expect that family support first and that's the best kind of support - keeping people at home."

Mr Fitzgerald said the council would still meet its statuary obligations in social care.

The pandemic had resulted in people having more complex needs, Wendi Ogle-Welbourn said

Wendi Ogle-Welbourn, the executive director for people and communities at the council, said the financial situation was "incredibly challenging".

She said social care costs were lower in Peterborough than comparable councils and that made it "very difficult" to see where spending could be reduced.

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Ms Ogle-Welbourn said: "One of the things we focus on is prevention because if we don't prevent things happening it'll cost us more down the line."

She said the financial pressures on services were because "the income we get in is not enough, and that's been building over a number of years.

"Government grants have reduced, so it's not just one thing, it's an accumulation of things that have happened over the last 10 years."

Carol Potgieter said costs such as PPE, wages and insurance had all gone up

Carol Potgieter, a care company director in Peterborough, said she was "seeing an escalation" in costs, partly down to the coronavirus pandemic.

She said: "If you look at the increase overall it's approximately 10%. The council doesn't have the money to put that 10% into social care.

"Where are they going to find the money from? Once again, that comes off the bottom line of the provider."

Labour opposition leader on Peterborough City Council, Shaz Nawaz, said the authority should have done more to raise income

Councillor Shaz Nawaz, the Labour opposition leader, said the council was "in deep, deep trouble".

He said: "Cutting costs and bringing in more income were two things we had to do and we haven't done them as we ought to have done them.

"So now we are under the microscope and we are going to have to make very difficult choices, which could have been avoided if we started this process four or five years ago."

Peterborough City Council is running a consultation on its budget proposals, which runs until 6 December.

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A spokesperson for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said: "We have provided more than £12bn directly to councils over the past 18 months, with more than £6bn available to spend as they see fit.

"This is in addition to around £1.6bn for councils in each of the next three years - an average of 3% in real terms each year, including investment in adult social care reform.

"Overall,  since the start of the pandemic, Peterborough City Council has received £47.2m, of which £25m is un-ringfenced funding. This funding is largely un-ringfenced in recognition that local authorities are best placed to decide how to meet the pressures in their local area.

"A small number of councils approached the Government last year to request additional support. The government agreed to provide additional financial support to these authorities on an exceptional basis."

You can watch more on this on Politics East in the East of England on Sunday from 10:00 GMT.