Plans to cut grants for older people in Hampshire criticised
Three schemes supporting voluntary and charitable groups could be scrapped
Thousands of older people in Hampshire would be put at greater risk of isolation by proposed cuts to community services, according to a leading care provider.
Hampshire County Council is currently reviewing proposed to save £680,000 from its adult social care budget, which would see three grant schemes ended.
£320,000 of this is provided to support a range of activities to help prevent and manage the need for adult social care.
The authority says the decision 'isn't being taken lightly' and forms part of plans to tackle a £80 million budget shortfall by next April.
The proposed cuts would mean that care providers like MHA would have to dramatically reduce activities and scrap some core services for older people.
The service has said this would diminish the positive benefits that these local services provide to older people in Hampshire.
Sam Monaghan, CEO of MHA, said:
“The services and activities we provide are designed to improve mental, physical, and social wellbeing from physical exercise to social activities.
“We know that our services are vital for the people that they support. Over the past year, our community services in Hampshire helped over 2,300 local people – through befriending services, exercise groups and food deliveries.
"Throughout the Covid-19 lockdowns, many of these services provided a critical lifeline to older people throughout the pandemic."
MHA also reports that these services help to delay older people accessing further care from HCC and health services, in turn saving money for the public purse.
“We receive approximately £2 per week in grant funding for each person that uses our services, but our work to prevent loneliness, falls and ill health is estimated to create savings of around £312,418 per year for local health and social care services - at least £72,418 per year more than the value of the grants we receive”.
Councillor Liz Fairhurst, Hampshire County Council’s Executive Lead Member for Adult Services and Public Health said:
“Finding additional savings across adult social care is extremely challenging, and while significant work continues to transform services and find more efficient ways of doing things, we have additionally had to take the very difficult decision to review some services that we have no legal obligation to provide.
"This is not something we do easily or lightly, but should any, or all of the proposals be taken forward, we would prioritise working with partner organisations to help minimise the impact of any changes.
“In the case of community grants, this would involve supporting local organisations to secure alternative methods of funding, improve the co-ordination of grant applications, as well as introducing proactive initiatives to help increase the number of volunteers coming forward.”
To add your views to the consultation, please visit the Hampshire County Council website.