A council official has laid bare the continued difficulties with recruitment in adult social care after being asked about the departments level of underspend. Director of adults, housing and communities at Cardiff Council, Jane Thomas, spoke about the challenges facing social care at a community and adult services scrutiny committee meeting on Monday February 28.
According to Cardiff Council figures, the authority has seen a £1.82 million underspend in adult social care for 2022/23. During Monday's scrutiny meeting, in which councillors were given the opportunity to discuss the council's budget proposals for 2023/24, the committee chair, Cllr Bablin Molik asked why this level of underspend had come about.
Jane Thomas said: "There are a number of issues really. One is that we can't recruit staff. As you will be fully aware, I think we are on 14% social work vacancies at the moment which is disappointing. We are continuing to work on that. The underspend is really about internal services rather than the provision of care, but also because of the pressures on the budget we have been trying to off-set expenditure through grants for example to make sure that we do underspend and it helps with the overall council position."
