Agenda item

Purpose of the report:  Scrutiny of Services and Policy Development & Review

The Adult Social Care Select Committee requested an annual report on the Adult Social Care debt position. This report has been prepared for the newly formed Social Care Services Board.

Declarations of Interest:

Dorothy Ross-Tomlin declared that she is the Trustee of a residential care home in Surrey.

Witnesses:

Wil House, Finance Manager

Toni Carney, Head of Resources

Jacky Edwards, Principal Lawyer

Key points raised during the discussions:

·         The Head of Resources informed the Board that ASC’s social care debt position had remained relatively static since it was last considered by the Adult Social Care Select Committee, with ASC being owed around £14 million for the delivery of care services to residents.

·         Concern was expressed that the issue of money outstanding for the delivery of social care services had been ongoing for several years and that there appears to have been little headway made in really addressing this problem especially given that the reason for many of the debts was that many people simply aren’t aware that they owe money to SCC. The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, Wellbeing and Independence highlighted that the amount of money outstanding was actually around £4.5 million - unsecured debt over a month old. It was stressed that ASC had significantly reduced its level of social care debt over the years and a great deal of work would be done to reduce this further.

·         The Board agreed that measures introduced by ASC had been successful in reducing the level of social care debt but stated that more would need to be done to decrease this further. It was suggested that ASC introduce a policy of initiating early conversations about finances with the individual receiving the care package and their families to encourage awareness of how much the services they receive from SCC would cost.

·         Members drew attention to the format in which the social care debt figures were presented to the Board and requested that reports clearly stipulate the amount of money owed to SCC in relation to secured and unsecured debt as well as details of the amount payable to ASC over a defined period of time.

·         The Principal Lawyer informed Members that ASC  worked closely with the Behavioural Insights Team to revise the language of the letters issued to fee-paying service users in order to encourage payment by Direct Debit. Furthermore, ASC had also instituted a policy of phoning individuals with outstanding debts to ask for the reasons for non-payment to get an idea of why people weren’t paying and how this can be addressed.

·         The Board inquired about how SCC’s level of social care debt compared to other local authorities and whether information about best practice for encouraging people to pay for the services they receive was shared between authorities. The Head of Resources advised that SCC compared quite favourably as it had a lower level of debt write off than at many other authorities. Members were told that Councils didn’t generally share much information about levels of social care debt but that a meeting had been scheduled with East Sussex County Council to discuss this and  comparing best practice and strategies for social care debt reduction.

Recommendations:

The Board recommends that:

1.    Work continues to increase the level of take-up of direct debit payments from 65%

2.    Officers explore the possibility of benchmarking the council’s level of debt with other local authorities.

3.    The data held on the level of adult social care debt as outlined in Appendix A of the report is extended to show how long unsecured debt has been outstanding e.g. 3 months, 6 months, 12 months.

4.    Supports the shift from a transactional to a more personal approach to the collection of debt.

Actions/ further information to be provided:

            None

Board next steps:

            None