Council’s frontline conscientious and dedicated staff help meet demand for services Exec Board hears

CARMARTHENSHIRE County Council says it has faced unprecedented pressures on its social care budget in the past year with the growing number of older people in need.

But in spite of the demands, the authority has continued to provide a range of good quality Social Care Services, the council’s Executive Board has been told.

Cllr Jane Tremlett, Executive Board Member for Health and Social Care, introduced colleagues to the annual report of the Director of Social Services, saying that ‘frontline, conscientious, and dedicated staff’ have helped meet the demand for services.

During its 2019 review of services, the Care Inspectorate Wales said people “routinely told us they were satisfied with the services that helped them” in Carmarthenshire.

This was one of a number of positive highlights in the report presented to the Executive Board.

Director for Communities, Jake Morgan, said: “The pace, demands, and pressures across children and adult care is such that you’re always trying to innovate and change things. There’s been an awful lot of work across children and adult safeguarding – work behind the scenes that are not very glamorous. But we have a lot to be proud of, and time for reflection is not a bad thing.

“It’s getting harder, but a lot of the innovations and prevention initiatives are very positive stories that we should be proud to talk about and celebrate.”

He highlighted work in services for people with mental health and learning disabilities, saying services are more modern and focused on preventative care, allowing more people to live in our communities with supportive arrangements in place to reduce the number of people needing residential care.

He also said work is underway to strengthen the workforce to continue meeting the demands of people requiring care at home, saying it was a ‘constant pressure’.

“While we’ve responded to need, and avoided the worst of austerity, there will always be a lot more to do and challenges to meet,” he said.

Cllr Emlyn Dole welcomed the report and vowed to work with leaders in other Welsh local authorities to keep up the pressure on the Welsh Government for more funding for social care.