BREAKING: Health chiefs pull plug on Torbay adult social care partnership

Health chiefs have decided to pull the plug on a pioneering social care partnership in Torbay – leaving the bay’s council to pick up a £35million bill.

Members of the board of the Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust said government rules meant they had no option but to drop the partnership, which has been running for 20 years and is hailed as an exemplar for the rest of the country.

Other local authorities and health trusts are studying the Torbay model to see if they can replicate it, but board members said spiralling costs meant they were left with no alternative but to walk away.

The term ‘adult social care’ refers to personalised support for adults with physical and learning disabilities, mental health issues or age-related needs. The aim is to help them live independently, safely, and comfortably, and in effect it takes pressure off hospitals by helping people stay in their communities.

Torbay’s integrated care arrangement serves 2,700 adults in need of social care in the bay, but the trust says it costs £35million a year to keep up its end of the deal and it can no longer afford it.

There will now be a 12-month transition period, with the trust pledging to maintain standards for vulnerable people in Torbay receiving care.

Torbay Council members have asked Health Secretary Wes Streeting to intervene and urge the trust to think again. In a last-minute plea to save the partnership the bay’s Liberal democrat MP Steve Darling said the partnership had already saved the NHS tens of millions of pounds by treating people in the community rather than in hospital.

Board chairman Professor Chris Balch said it was not a decision the trust had taken quickly, and a year of work had gone into it.

“Adult social care is the largest single item of deficit we have,” he said. “This has been a very difficult and challenging decision.”

Joe Teape, the trust’s chief executive, told the meeting: “This is not about stepping away from integrated working or withdrawing support from the people of Torbay. Our commitment to the partnership is unchanged.

“But the current arrangements can no longer provide the footing we need as an NHS trust. The financial deficit has grown to a level we can no longer safely carry without affecting other NHS services.

“Without change, we would need to reduce NHS services to subsidise adult social care, and this is not a position we feel we can allow to develop. This is not about ending joint working, but putting it on a sustainable footing.”

He said other areas of South Devon had a different arrangement, where the costs of social care are met by the local authority and the costs of health are met by the NHS. In Torbay the trust has been ‘sub-contracted’ ‘ to run adult social care on behalf of the council, and the money the council pays it to provide the service is much less than the total cost.

Mr Teape went on: “Continuing to absorb such a large unfunded shortfall is not compatible with our duties as an NHS foundation trust.”

After the meeting Torbay councillor Swithin Long (Lib Dem, Barton with Watcombe) said the trust’s financial reasoning was ‘flawed’ and, he warned, picking up the bill for adult social care risked ‘bankrupting’ Torbay Council.

And former Torbay Conservative MP Kevin Foster said: “This really is a bad day for our bay. “The idea of integrating health and care was about providing the best care to some of our most vulnerable residents. It has lasted through 20 years and various different governments, but now it looks as if it will be coming to an end.

“This is not good news.”

Mr Foster said there might still be a chance to challenge the decision.