Members of the Council’s Grants Advisory Committee at their most recent meeting (12 December 2024) endorsed the recommendations to provide funding for 16 schemes covering 49 parishes, which were formally agreed to yesterday (18 December 2024) by Lead Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources, Cllr John Williams (Lib Dem, Fen Ditton and Fulbourn Ward).
The schemes provide a relatively low-cost daily service compared to more formal care options, with significant benefits, including enabling older people to remain living at home independently for longer; avoiding earlier transfer into care and reducing the need for additional care packages; avoiding unnecessary hospital admission; enabling more expedient hospital discharge; providing reassurance (if not respite) to carers; providing daily contact to people who would otherwise live in isolation and/or away from their families. They can also provide a benefit to scheme wardens and volunteers who may also be suffering from loneliness.
Lib Dem run South Cambridgeshire District Council has made a number of interventions to support Mobile Wardens Schemes over the past few years, including providing £100,000 in support in March 2024 to prevent the closure of 11 schemes operated by Age UK.
In September, the Council agreed a 10-year tapered grant scheme to enable schemes to become self-sustaining year on year and less reliant on external public sector funding. This followed a report by Rose Regeneration which highlighted the value of Mobile Warden Schemes and the financial difficulty many schemes are facing.
In the meeting, Cllr Williams said: “People involved in mobile and community warden schemes, who are mainly volunteers, were getting discouraged because the financial constraints made it look like these schemes couldn’t continue. However, the work council officers and Rose Regeneration have done is bringing people together and has shown people that these schemes can work and can eventually stand on their own two feet.
People really appreciate the support and advice council officers have given them, to enable them to look afresh at what’s happening and to ensure that going forward this vital service which keeps so many people out of care and hospital is going forward.
This is a fantastic scheme that I think is unique to South Cambs. I think this is a model that could be rolled out across the country and could ensure that people are looked after in their own homes and could reduce the cost of adult social care in the end, with fewer people having to go into care and into hospital.”
