BOURNEMOUTH is lagging behind when it comes to encouraging adult social care users to choose their own support, a report reveals.

Currently just 15 per cent of adult social care services are provided through self-directed support – where the person needing assistance buys the support themselves using the council’s money.

The vast majority of services – 60 per cent – are provided through a contract with another organisation and 25 per cent of services are provided directly by the council.

The council is keen to increase the number of people choosing their own support package and get closer to the national average of 30 per cent.

It says it will be providing support and advice to help more people take control of their needs, rather than the council stepping in and doing it for them.

The figures are published in the council’s first ‘Local Account,’ a new ‘open and frank’ public report designed to show Bournemouth’s local adult social care services are doing.

This reveals the sheer scale of demand in Bournemouth and the resources spent meeting it. Last year, Bournemouth council spent just under £83milion on adult social care services, including £44m on services for people aged 65 and over.

Within the past year, 4,355 people – three per cent of the local adult population – received some form of support. This can range from something as simple as delivering a bath seat to helping someone move into a care home.

A quarter of the budget - £20m – was spent on services for people with learning disabilities, £8.5m went on services for people under the age of 65 with physical disabilities and £5.1m went on services for adults under 65 with mental health problems.

The report also reveals that for every pound spent on adult social care, 86 pence goes directly on delivering frontline services and 14 pence is spent on overheads, including senior managers, office and property costs and administration.

  • JANE Cuthbert, pictured above, who has been wheelchair bound since a brain haemorrhage around 14 years ago, was one of the first people in Bournemouth to switch to self-directed support.

“The idea of self-directed support is brilliant,” she said.

“Nobody knows my care needs better than me and the idea that I can just be given a sum of money to spend on what I need, when I need it is great.

“But it’s not always as straightforward as it should be.

“I’ve had problems when the council doesn’t just leave me to get on with it but tries to get involved.

“They still seem happier telling you what you can’t spend your money on rather than what you can.”