Social care costs rocket at

The level of social care services in South Lanarkshire could be slashed if costs continues to spiral – according to council officers.

A revenue budget monitoring report, which went before councillors at the first meeting of the executive committee last Wednesday, stated there had been a £154,000 overspend in social work resources between April 1 and May 26 this year.

And a council officer warned that an unexpected spike in costs associated with placements for care homes, Home Care demands, and continuing pressures for children’s placements in residential schools could see services having to be cut if costs continue to rise above budget.

The officer told councillors: “Demand for these services spiked big time in the first two months of the year.

“And if this continues throughout the year we will have serious budget problems.

“If so we will need to look at how we deliver of services most effectively.

“We may have to look at stopping to provide some services, changing our criteria on what level of services we provide or doing less for more people.”

Labour’s Clydesdale West councillor Eileen Logan said that with South Lanarkshire’s ageing population, pressure on social care budgets was only going to rise.

“We are a nation of baby boomers who are growing older and have more people with additional needs,”she said.