NO cuts to social services are proposed in the 2020/21 Caerphilly council budget.
And the county borough council is looking at opening more children's homes and bringing children in residential care outside the area back into foster care, among a range of preventative measures it hopes will save money in the long run.
The county borough council announced its draft budget proposals last month, which included more than £8 million in cuts overall.
However, in the council’s social services scrutiny committee, cabinet member for social services, Cllr Carl Cuss, confirmed that none of the savings will be coming from the social services budget.
Cllr Cuss said: “Nothing is detailed within this report so there will be no cuts to social services.
“However, if these initiatives don’t work, it will be a different set of circumstances.”
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The committee also heard about a change in approach to social services.
Corporate director for social services, Dave Street, talked about the plans to alleviate the cost pressures.
He said: “In our report, we outlined a number of initiatives which signify a change in approach.
“These initiatives are preventative services designed to catch people much earlier on in the process.
“It will mean that people’s needs won’t be as great and it will cost the authority less.”
Some of the initiatives include, getting two more children’s homes up and running, bringing out-of-county residential care children back into foster care, and hiring specialists to keep children with their families when it is safe to do so.
This will be funded by a one-off payment of £800,000 from the social services reserves.
The committee’s chairman Cllr Lyndon Binding asked whether the new approach had been risk assessed.
He said: “How will you interpret the results of this, how will you see if you have reached success?”
Mr Street said: “That’s the million-dollar question.
“We have already started to implement many of these initiatives and early intervention will mean that children will likely have less complex needs going forward.”
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