Consultation on proposals for care services in the Allerdale and Distington areas

Cumbria County Council would like to hear your views about how we should support older people within the Allerdale and Distington area.

Ensuring services are available for a local population that is getting older is challenging. We are living longer and our expectations of the care and services we would like in later life are changing. Many older people have already told us that they do not want to move to residential care and would rather be supported in their own homes.

New services, as alternatives to long-term residential care, will help older people to remain independent for longer. These new services include rehabilitation and high level support to help people to stay in their home for as long as possible as well as extra care housing that gives people their own front door with the reassurance of an on-site care team.

Cumbria County Council has looked carefully at the money that we spend and have developed a number of proposals which will change the way care services are currently provided. These proposals support the changing trends of adult social care and mean that higher numbers of older people can be supported at home at no extra cost. We would also like to prepare now for the increase in people with dementia by investing in improvements to our residential care homes at Wigton and Maryport. We would also like to invest in a modern extra care housing scheme in partnership with Allerdale District Council, a housing association and other partners.

We would stress that no decision has been made; final decisions on the proposals will be made by Cumbria County Council Cabinet taking into account the outcome of the consultation feedback. This is likely to be in April / May of next year.  The council has already received letters and emails from people expressing their views on the proposals and these will all be included in the consultation feedback.

View a summary of the proposals for change.

You can find out more about these proposals by downloading the consultation on proposals for care services in the Allerdale and Distington areas document. Towards the end of this document there is questionnaire section to enable you to share your views with us. You can also download a Microsoft Word version of this questionnaire which you can return via email to proposalsforcareservices@cumbria.gov.uk.

The consultation period will last from 14 November 2011 to 14 February 2012.