The future of Wightcare is unclear as the service struggles to balance the books following the loss of almost 100 clients, but the Isle of Wight Council is being asked to keep the company in-house despite these struggles.
The Council is looking to find a financially-viable way forward for the service, which supports around 2,100 Islanders. It plans to implement a 2-year programme to turn things around.
Currently, the local authority subsidises Wightcare —this year at an estimated cost of nearly £550,000. That is after a 13% hike in fees earlier this year which the Council hoped would generate a further £101,000.
An independent review has recently found the service costs £1,572,000 to run each year with 72% of its budget going towards staffing. However, demand in previous months has reduced, with 92 customers choosing to leave the service.
To break even, it has been determined a 54% increase in either client numbers or fees is needed. However, the independent review has said continued fee increases alone may not alone be the answer.
Instead, the Council could look at how resources are deployed and operate in a more business-like way to increase growth and minimise costs.
3 options have been proposed for the authority — keeping the service, outsourcing it to the private sector or creating a trading company for Wightcare. The council’s preferred option, and 1 cabinet could agree on later today (Thursday), is to retain the Wightcare service in-house and develop a 2-year cost recovery model, starting from April, to achieve breakeven finances.
It is thought keeping the service in-house would pose the least risk and allow the Council greater control and quicker responses.
If it were to stay with the Isle of Wight Council, a transformation plan including a service redesign, offer review and enhanced marketing would take place.
So if they have spare capacity for clients there should now be no bed blocking at St Mary’s.
It not a service where they go round every day two or three times a day
So, some bean counter just assumed that hiking the prices would generate the extra revenue, without taking into consideration people leaving, rather than paying and a reduction in revenue being seen.
well, who would have thought it.
instead of wasting taxpayers money on this loss making enterprise – cut it back to the bone, seeing as 72% of budget goes on staffing.
if it isn’t paying for itself – pull the plug on it and take a bit of pressure off the hard working taxpayers.
This should be the IOW councils first cut, rather than increasing council tax with all the usual excuses attached.
Any excuse to whack up our council tax, ….
How about you use your over inflated pension pot, that we the tax payers pay for ?????
How about you forget about your new heating system and led lighting ….
You have wasted so much of our money it Beggars belief !!!!!
If you thought about how much you have wasted, you would have a massive amount to support the island , but no council 1st cash cow’s last !!!!!@
whatever makes you think that the taxpayers pay for council pensions? I paid in a fair whack of my wages into the scheme for over 30 years. That money was then invested to pay back a return to give me a pension. It costs the taxpayers nothing.
because as an employer the council has to pay in contributions to council staff pension schemes alongside the employee contributions – so yes, it does cost the taxpayer
Plus the percentage paid in is astronomical compared to defined contribution pension schemes found in the private sector – look at the annual accounts and you will see the sum contributed – it’s quite breath-taking
When I worked for a local authority I was paying 6% of my wage into my pension and the council paid in 18%.
So for every £100 they put in £300.
Last year 3.8 per cent gross of council tax was for pension pot,…..
So for every £2000 ,we pay per year £360-00 (approx)
goes towards council pension.
However it is paid it comes from the tax payer !!!!!!
Don’t forget the employer’s pension contribution it’s not just your money that goes into the pension pot.
I’m not complaining.Far from it,I get local government pension and it was good enough to retire at 55.
It does cost the tax payers because about 35% of the council tax is used to pay pensions.
The council pay a share to top this up,as well as National Insurance which goes towards pensions.
Because we do contribute to council’s pensions
There isn’t enough information here to form a view but the recommendations made (by whom?) don’t seem to add up. IE, where can we find better detail?
Wightcare are mobile responders they are not Wighthome care.
They allow many people to continue living independently at home and ease the burden on adult social care budget, without this there could be a lot more bed blocking. They also have been known to attend calls for the ambulance service to triage calls. Without them the call center could go to a mainland company and people would have to wait for an ambulance etc to attend putting more strain on the nhs also causing more fatalities.
Wasted money on fleets of cars,why? they cost tax payers far more per mile with a team employed to sort them, running costs, servicing, insurance etc, underpaid care staff then have to pay to come to work and be out at 11pm.
They used to be able to go back and forth from home to clients and claim small amount mileage to cover only fuel costs.. Not understanding how agencies can charge less but still make money when Council can’t. This council is intent on ruining services, morale is lowest ever and agency staff needed to fill vacancies.Like Island Roads,why hire road signs from hire companies who make huge amounts instead of buying there own?. They use them and traffic lights everyday somewhere on the Island.Is our council Republican?
Well done Bandit. You clearly understand the service provided unlike many of the posters on here who just spout the usual gripes about the Council without really knowing what they’re talking about.
92 customers have left, because of natural causes, or the standard of service?
If the social care team got its arse in gear and got people the care package they are waiting so long for then most if not all of these would take up wightcare services.
As usual themselves to blame.
Unless something has changed recently, I thought this Company was telephone emergency support at home – not Homecare (providing personal carers in the home)?
You are right, but wightcare is highly recommended even if carers are visiting so the take up would be there if people could get a care package that this would accompany .
Because the service cost more that’s why they left, you can’t get a care package in place if no care staff available
How much did independent review cost, expect they will need to appoint a business for change manager too .
Trust the council to think let’s increase the fees, in a period of high interest rates and high cost of living. Better to have many on your books rather than a few with the age population on the Island I am surprised they only have just over 2000 customers. Lower the cost and you may have more customers and therefore more money coming in, not everyone actually requires your service daily most only have it for peace of mind or families have requested it for peace of mind. Just give it a go, same goes for the bus service, empty buses do not bring in revenue.
Serves our greedy council hiking up!
Its not a major costly operation yoo run is it.people check on people …people go out too them… inexpensive alarm button?
Funny how the council don’t moan about flittering money on the floating bridge,but come to tax payers who needs help they don’t want to pay out for