A COUNCIL’S adult learning disabilities care service could be outsourced in a bid to save up to £400,000 a year.

Slough Borough Council’s cabinet was asked to approve a review into how the council currently supports people with learning disabilities and investigate how to implement a preferred solution during a meeting on Monday evening.

The aim of the review is to ensure the services, which are currently provided in-house, can offer the best outcomes for people with learning disabilities while also contributing to the council’s savings target and comply with the Care Act 2014 by giving people who use the service users choice and control.

Councillor Sabia Hussain, commissioner for health and wellbeing, said: “We now have to ensure residential and respite care for people with learning disabilities in Slough continues to remain top quality, offers flexibility and is fit for purpose now and in the future – within the context of increasing demand and dwindling budgets.”

The current in-house services include Lavender Court, which provides residential care for seven people, and the Respond Service which provides respite care for eight people – both based in Priors Close.

The review will investigate the proposal of a refurbishment of Lavender Court and a remodelling of the current services by deregistering the in-house eight-bed residential care service to a seven-bed supported living unit, along with two training flats being provided to support people with learning disabilities to learn to live independently.

The flats would be used for respite care when not in use.

The review also suggests looking at one organisation managing both services if savings can be identified.

There will also be an encouragement of shared living schemes – where families with a spare bedroom can accommodate someone with learning disabilities for a short period of time – as an alternative to respite care.

In Slough, there were 2,153 adults with learning disabilities in 2007 and this number is predicted to increase by 23% by 2017 and then by a further 11% by 2027.

The council currently helps 356 adults with learning disabilities.

Historically, people with learning disabilities had been placed in residential care outside the borough, but in 2014 the council’s adult social care service launched a project that enabled these people to return to Slough into supported living placements provided in partnership with housing providers.

Cllr Hussain added: “This review is the next step in a journey that started in 2014 when we made the decision to offer supported living placements in Slough to those residents living outside the borough.”