East Sussex council leaders have agreed to move ahead with almost £4 million of adult social care cuts.
Over the course of a nearly four-hour meeting on Tuesday (February 25), East Sussex County Council’s cabinet agreed to move ahead with 11 savings proposals, which are expected to collectively cut £3.994 million from the authority’s adult social care budget for 2025/26.
The agreed cuts, an earlier form of which were put out to public consultation in September last year, include a major reduction in funding for a housing support service, as well as the closure of day services for both older people and people with learning disabilities.
The cuts saw significant criticism from the council’s opposition groups.
Liberal Democrat leader David Tutt said: “Never … has there been a day or set of reports quite like those that cabinet are looking at today. If these proposals are agreed, I believe that the 25th of February, 2025 will go down as the darkest day in East Sussex history.”
He added: “[The proposals will have] a disproportionate impact upon older people, disabled people, carers, people living in rural areas, ethnic minorities and the homeless.
“You couldn’t if you tried put together a list of more vulnerable members of our community than that list, who are going to be disproportionately impacted by the proposals that you are looking at today.”
Cllr Tutt and others also argued the cuts would end up costing the “public purse” more money in the long run.
This line of argument saw push back from Council leader Keith Glazier (Con), who said: “Nobody comes into this room this morning thinking this is easy, but what we have done … is familiarise ourselves with the what we are having to consider and in doing that recognising the alternatives, you think that by sitting down for a day or two we could just find, do not exist.
“If they did, they would be here this morning, I can assure you.”
Speaking later in the meeting, he added: “I think we all agree with the sentiments that you are putting forward. The bottomline is we have a legal duty to balance our budget, we have set our budget and we then have to identify where this is coming from.”
“Alice in Wonderland economics”
Opposition councillors raised particular concerns around cuts to the council’s Housing-Related Floating Support Service — a cut which made up the bulk of the total savings proposals.
The service, which the county council commissions from BHT Sussex, provides short-term direct support to East Sussex residents who are either homeless or at risk of homelessness.
Cabinet members agreed to cut the service’s annual budget from £4,372,615 to £500,000, with the change coming into effect from 1 October 2025. This would result in a half-year saving of a little under £1.94 million, council papers said.
According to council papers, BHT Sussex had suggested an alternative proposal to reduce the contract value by £2 million — a 46 per cent reduction, instead of the proposed 88.4 per cent.
The cut saw criticism from opposition councillors, with several pointing out how the loss of the service was expected to result in additional costs of around £9.9 million for the county’s district and borough councils (which carry the statutory duty for housing) .
Several argued this impact was particularly relevant when taken in the context of an upcoming reorganisation of local government. This reorganisation is expected to see the current two-tier system of county and district/borough councils replaced with new unitary authority, which would take on responsibilities of both bodies.
Among those to make the argument was Cllr Godfrey Daniel (Lab), who said: “When you abolish something or change something dramatically it is very hard to reinstitute it. Really I think a holding position would be much better so that the unitary body, whatever that is, can actually consider those things as a whole.
“One of the proposals in here makes savings of four and a half million, but actually costs the local and district boroughs £9 million. This makes no sense.”
Green Party councillor Julia Hilton, who also leads Hastings Borough Council, described the cut as “Alice in Wonderland economics”.
She said: “We absolutely have to delay this decision to make sure there is more opportunity for lobbying.
“To lose this service … seems to me a complete nonsense. This is the most radical cut and it makes no sense on any level at all.”
This view was shared by several others, who called on the council to delay the proposals and draw money from reserves to make up the budget shortfall.
This suggestion saw criticism from Conservative councillor Carl Maynard, the authority’s lead member for adult social care and health. He said: “The reality is we are where we are. We’ve got to deliver a balanced budget today; not next year, not next week, now.
He added: “Were we to agree all of the suggestions from the opposition today, we would be quite literally having to find a funding shortfall of £3 or £4 million. That is not just this year, that is next year and more.”
Revised proposals
While the cuts are expected to save the same amount of money overall, many of the proposals approved by cabinet members differed in detail from what had been put out to public consultation in September last year.
For example, the council had initially proposed the total closure of four day services, which collectively provide support for both older people and people with learning disabilities. The proposals agreed by cabinet members scaled back some of these changes.
As a result, the Milton Grange day service in Eastbourne, which supports older people, will now remain open, although it will no longer open on Saturdays. Cabinet members heard how this change, which means the service will be open for five days each week, had been suggested by staff of the centre.
Similarly, the Hookstead day service in Crowborough, which supports people with learning disabilities will also remain open, but with 25 per cent less capacity than it currently has.
Cabinet members did agree to move ahead with the full closure of the older persons day service at the Phoenix Centre in Lewes, however.
The Linden Court day service in Eastbourne, which supports people with learning disabilities, will also still close its doors, although the amended proposals agreed by cabinet now include plans to run a two-day-per-week “satellite service” within the town.
This alternative provision didn’t go far enough for Inge and Martin Keats, whose 28-year-old daughter Em has been attending the Linden Court day service for around four years.
Speaking to the LDRS, Inge, 60, said: “Em really loves Linden Court. She has really settled in well and the staff are amazing.
“We’ve tried everything. There is not much more we can do really. We’ve written letters, we’ve done the consultations but it has all been for nothing. I don’t think we’ve been listened to at all and I don’t think they understand what we go through, at all.”
Martin, 69, said: “In the end we will probably lose her to [residential care] … which will cost East Sussex County Council even more. It is just a waste of money what they are doing.
“How they can just sit there and ignore us and just vote against our wishes and all the people of Eastbourne. I just don’t get it.”
Other revisions include those related to drugs and alcohol recovery services. The council had initially been planning to completely cease its funding for these services — intended to help people maintain long term sobriety — when the contract comes to an end later this year. This was scaled-back to a service reduction rather than a complete cut, as a result of additional external funding.
