The politician responsible for Birmingham’s adult social services says she often lies awake at night worrying about the implications of budget cuts.
Sue Anderson, the cabinet member for Adults and Communities, insisted she “cared deeply” about the plight of vulnerable people.
“I wouldn’t be lying awake at three in the morning worrying about the budget if I didn’t care,” she added.
She also revealed that council officials had never been certain that the city’s voluntary sector had the capacity to deliver care packages for disabled adults with substantial needs who stood to lose council-funded social services under a four-year £53 million cuts plan.
The council’s failure to demonstrate how demand would be met was one of the reasons behind the decision by High Court judge Mr Justice Walker to allow a judicial review into budget decisions – forcing the council to abandon its plans to remove social care from more than 4,000 adults.
Coun Anderson (Lib Dem Sheldon) said the speed at which Government spending cuts were ordered meant that the council had to change the criteria for delivering social care more quickly than planned and before being sure that the voluntary sector could cope.
She admitted: “We always said we weren’t absolutely positive the suppliers were out there. I think there is a tremendous amount of work going on to ensure that they are.
“I have put my heart and soul into running Adults and Communities and I sympathise with clients who are concerned about the future.”
She insisted that many social services clients welcomed the opportunity to move to a new system, where they will be handed individual budgets by the council and invited to buy-in help from the voluntary sector because it gave them more independence.
Coun Anderson stressed that she had an “open mind” about ways in which the £53 million could be saved.
Council leaders have ordered an urgent spending review and have not ruled out the possibility of cutting other departmental budgets, placing a question mark over the delivery of leisure services including libraries, museums, swimming pools and community centres.
