Cost-cutting plan to end a mental health service for older people

But a senior councillor has insisted that people will not be left worse off because of the change.

Bradford Council's Labour leadership is proposing to slash its adult services budget by £8.5 million from April.

One of the projects due to come to an end is a mental health service for older people provided by the organisation Creative Support.

The contract will soon expire and a decision not to renew it would save £200,000 a year, the budget proposals show.

Councillor Amir Hussain, executive member for adult services, said: "It is a contract that was coming up for renewal in April this year. All that contract does is provide low-level short-term support for up to about 12 weeks. I'm sure most people on average use it for eight weeks and then exit it.

"What has been happening is that increasingly, many people need more and more extensive services but this contract isn't able to provide us with that kind of service."

Cllr Hussain said despite the change, older people with mental health needs could get a more comprehensive service from now on, as they would be directed to the Council's in-house Bradford Enablement Support Team (BEST).

He said: "It is not something that people will stop getting. It is just we feel that through the BEST enablement service, people do actually get a better service. We can meet their multiple needs."

The plan came under the spotlight at a meeting of the Health and Social Care overview and scrutiny committee at City Hall on Wednesday.

There, Janice Simpson, strategic director for adult services, said as budgets shrank, Bradford Council's adult services department would increasingly have to focus on its core functions, "and provide those functions as well as we can".

She added: "With the reductions we are proposing, we are able to provide safe services to the people of the district.

"I'm not saying it is easy for the staff and I am not saying it is not challenging."

The budget proposals are due to be finalised next month. Opposition parties have not yet revealed their alternative budget suggestions.

Some adult social care cuts which are due to come into effect from April have already been agreed by Bradford Council, as part of last year's two-year budget.

These include a move to employ more NVQ-qualified social care workers and fewer professionally qualified social workers, saving £287,000 a year.

They also include a decision to close all Council-run daycare centres, apart from those for people with dementia, over a three-year period.