Residential care places for adults with disabilities could be cut and public health initiatives rolled back under Birmingham City Council plans to slash £52 million from the budget over three years.
And if further cutbacks are needed, charities and voluntary groups will see grants withdrawn and initiatives to tackle smoking and obesity slashed.
The drastic plans were announced as the council launched its latest budget discussion proposals around health and adult social care in the city.
Council bosses have outlined a set of proposals to cut the £52 million - an estimate of the total demanded by Government over the next three years.
A key saving of £15.5 million will be made through an overhaul of care for people with learning difficulties which could mean about 1,000 service users, about ten per cent of the total, having their care ‘redesigned’.
Residential places will be cut for many, and replaced with sheltered or supported independent living.
A similar policy has been successful with old people’s care. Birmingham already spends more with 700 people per 100,000 in residential care, which compares badly to other core cities like Sheffield and Manchester who have about 400.
Cabinet member for health and wellbeing Steve Bedser said: “We’ll help people live independently in the community, with the right support. This leads to a better quality of life with the benefit of being less expensive.”
Other proposals include more integration between adult and children’s social care departments, less duplication of services with the NHS and setting up a specialist care co-operative to sell services to outside organisations.
The council has also drawn up a package of £28 million cuts which will see services rolled back to the legal minimum as a ‘worst case scenerio’. Having already cut the numbers of elderly in homes, the council plan a similar cut for working age people with learning disabilities to encourage more affordable independent living.
