Pandemic has put pressure on adult social care in Blackpool

The council service is forecast to overspend by £2.3m in the current financial year due to added pressures.

But inroads have been made to reduce the number of people waiting for care packages, with the total down to 25 from around 100.

The information was presented to members of the council’s Adult Social Care and Health Scrutiny Committee.

In a report to the committee, director of adult services Karen Smith said: “The council’s ability to respond across all service areas has been impacted by staffing issues in the care sector as a whole, and at times over the last one to two months we have had between 90 and 100 people waiting for care packages in the community.

“We are currently in a better position with approximately 25 people waiting at this time, due in part to a new care provider starting work in Blackpool.”

Ms Smith told a meeting of the committee there had been a 20 per cent increase in demand for care at home since 2019 with many people having more complex needs.

Looking ahead to the next financial year, she said it was difficult to predict demand for the service which naturally “peaks and ebbs”.

But she said: “We want to make sure we have the right response and ensuring people are not being left in a system where they are in a worse position than if we had got to them in time is vital.

“But it will be challenging.”

The report warned the “legacy of the pandemic is still being felt across the sector with people presenting at point of crisis”.

Many had not sought help sooner “due to fears about hospitals, worries about finances and a reluctance to ask for help when the news portrays a system in crisis.”

Ms Smith adds in her report many people have missed out on early diagnosis and treatment due to the pandemic.

While this is reflected across the country “for Blackpool’s population with some of the existing struggles around poverty related issues this simply deepened the crisis.”