Milton Keynes Council’s Adult Social Care Service has made dramatic progress in reducing the numbers of older people over 65 and younger people with disabilities aged 18 to 64 going into residential and nursing homes per 100,000 of the population.

Cllr Nigel Long, Cabinet Member for Health an Adult Social Care said, “the Council has a long term commitment to supporting older people to remain active and in their own homes for as long as possible. The 44% drop in the use of residential and nursing homes  reflects the focus on prompting independence but also on developing community based alternatives to high cost care and nursing homes.” 

Cllr Long added,“We will continue to look at alternative community based options to help older people remain independent. In fact we are looking at going back into specialist care home provision and at creating more specialist dementia related provision as a way of meeting complex needs at lower costs whilst delivering quality services.”  

He further added, “In terms of young people with disabilities. We want to find alternatives to residential provision and hitting the zero admission level in July was a ‘Mega’ high point, but it cannot disguise the fact that we are planning to budget over £780,000 for just 10 placements next year. We hope to find community based alternatives.“ 

He concluded,“I want to thank Council staff for delivering such improvements against a background of growing demand and financial pressures. The Labour led Council is committed to supporting older and disabled residents staying independent in their own homes or the local community.”