Appendix 3 ASCH - 30.06.2026

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The net ASC and Safer Communities budget for 2025/26 was £288.655m, and the forecast outturn was £298.631m, an overspend of £9.976m. p7

The number of people awaiting financial assessment fell from 590 at 31 March 2025 to 461 at 31 March 2026. p3

A CQC inspection report into Adult Social Care and Health, published in October, highlighted many areas of strength including person centred care planning, strong co-production with people who are experts by experience, effective safeguarding and a culture of learning and development. p2

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• p2Adult Social Care (ASC) Demand for care and support services In accordance with the Care Act 2014, ASC commission and provide a range of services to support adults and older people across East Sussex. There is an increasing complexity of need amongst people accessing support, with demand for services exceeding pre-pandemic levels and continuing to increase. Some examples include: · there has been a 26.5% increase in Mental Capacity Assessments completed in 2025/26 compared to 2024/25 · there has been a 6.2% increase in the number of people receiving bedded care (residential and nursing care), and a 3.3 % increase in the number receiving Long Term Support in a community setting at 31 March 2026 compared to the same point in 2025 · there has been an 8.0% increase in the number of assessments completed in 2025/26 compared to 2024/25, as well as a 4.7% increase in contacts handled at Health and Social Care Connect (HSCC) Access Despite the continued increased demand for support the most recent published data shows our performance is in the top quarter of all local authorities in England for key metrics such as the overall satisfaction of people who use services with their care and support and the proportion of people who use services who have control over their daily life. The CQC inspection report into Adult Social Care and Health which was published in October highlighted many areas of strength including person centred care planning, strong co-production with people who are experts by experience, effective safeguarding and a culture of learning and development. All areas identified for improvement have been reviewed and actions agreed for delivery by the end of 2026/27. As part of this work, we have improved information sharing for health and social care professionals through the sharing of Adult Social Care information into Plexus, a shared information viewing platform with NHS colleagues.
• p3We also continue to maintain our focus on reducing waiting times for adult social care and support; over the last year the median (average) time in days from the proposed start date for a review of an Adult Care and Support Plan to the actual start date has improved from 5 days to 2 day and the number of people awaiting financial assessment has decreased from 590 as of 31 March 2025 to 461 as of 31 March 2026. 99.2% of financial assessments were started within 28 days in 2025/26. We have also worked with Active Sussex and other partners to support people recovering from strokes. This innovative work resulted in the project being awarded the overall Community Hospitals Association President’s Innovation and Best Practice Award and has resulted in more people being helped to recover from strokes more effectively. In addition, we have worked with Active Sussex and a range of other partners to secure over £300,000 from Sport England to develop a new priority place-based approach to helping more people be physically active and to keeping people physically well. We expect that this work will lead to a significant further funding bid in 2026-27. We have delivered the 2025-26 Adult Social Care action plan, which was based on resident priorities. This work has covered a broad range of areas and included, for example: · improving people’s financial security by helping them to maximise their income · helping to maintain people’s independence and wellbeing through challenging life experiences · improving access to volunteering opportunities · supporting carers · developing a new publication that specifically targets early intervention on issues that drive the need for care and support in East Sussex. This work is both improving the capacity and effectiveness of our systems, and improving people’s lives.
• p7Digital campaign to promote suicide prevention Stay Alive App From 5 December 2025 to 29 January 2026 Grassroots Suicide Prevention, with funding from Public Health, ran a digital campaign to promote the Stay Alive app. The app is a suicide prevention resource full of tools and resources to help people stay safe from suicide. During the 8 weeks of the campaign, the app was downloaded a total of 1,306 times. Hastings, St Leonard's, Eastbourne, Hailsham and Bexhill were the areas which saw the greatest number of views of the ads and downloads of the app. Revenue Budget Summary ASC and Safer Communities The net ASC and Safer Communities budget of £288.655m for 2025/26 includes a 4% inflationary uplift of £10.724m to support the care market across the Independent Sector. This uplift is in addition to £9.626m to fund growth and demographic pressures and service demands, with the costs of the increases being partially funded by £7.515m raised through the 2% ASC Care Precept. The department has savings targets of £7.420m for 2025/26. The net forecast ASC outturn for 2025/26 is £298.631m, which is an overspend of £9.976m. This largely relates to the Independent Sector, where the overspend is £12.163m. This is due to an increase in demand compared to Q4 2024/25 and periods before, which informed the modelling for 2025/26 and therefore would not have captured the 6.5% growth in demand. Our unit costs at Q4 2025/26 compared to Q4 2024/25 have remained consistent as a result of work we have been doing to keep costs down. More people are being supported but at the same average cost compared to Q4 2024/25 because we are working closely with the market, being prudent with packages of support and reviewing more people. There is an underspend in non Independent Sector Services of £2.187m due to staffing vacancies, partially offset by increasing costs and demand for equipment services to support people in their homes.