City's social care reform 'too slow'.

Byline: Paul Dale

THE slow pace of a Birmingham social care shake-up could mean improved choice pledges are not met, a senior city councillor has warned.

Coun Len Clark spoke amid concerns that a financial crisis could derail the city council's ambitious attempts to modernise adult social care.

The authority's adults and communities department is heading for an pounds 8 million overspend, but pressures on individual budgets and the steady growth of the city's elderly population were considered likely to make matters much worse.

Coun Clark (Con, Quinton), who chairs the adults and communities scrutiny committee, said the switch away from direct council provision of services had been talked about for years but little progress had been made.

It was becoming increasingly obvious, he added, there was insufficient independent and voluntary sector provision in Birmingham at to meet current demand.

"If we allow people to exercise choice because we have given them individual budgets but then there are no providers for them to choose from, we risk putting people in worse circumstances than they are in," he said. "We want to see a change in the quality of service delivery but grand plans on their own mean very little. "