Question on Cabinet Minutes (17/10/22) P45: Item 8 – Future contracting tender arrangements for residential and dual registered homes  

Thank you, Madam Mayor. 

My question and comments relate to item 8 on page 45, future contracting tender arrangements for residential and dual registered care homes. 

The news that this Council is going out to market with the ambition of opening a new children’s residential care facility in Oldham is very welcome and long overdue.

Year on year we see significant overspends/demands on social care budgets and by providing more ‘in Borough’ care options and Council operated, we can address that issue. 

Providing the care that we need for our residents and, where there is surplus capacity, other Boroughs can access it at the market rate.

It’s not only children’s services that can benefit from this approach. 

We have an ageing population and as we grow older, people are living with increasingly complex care needs.

Increasing Council direct provision for social care protects us from changes in the private sector and gives choice to our residents and their families.

With hundreds of new people across the country needing adult social care each day, can I ask if the same approach for increasing ‘in Borough provision’ run by the Council is being considered for adult’s social care as well?

I do hope so and look forward to us building and operating directly more care homes and other specialist care settings required for our aging population.