MORE action to help older people stay in their own homes and to support people with learning and physical disabilities is being suggested in a £2 million boost to City of York Council's social services budget.

But the proposed £34 million budget - to be discussed at a cross-party meeting on Wednesday - has been criticised by the Liberal Democrats for not doing enough to reduce delayed discharges, where elderly people take up hospital beds because there is no suitable nursing or residential home available.

Officers have suggested the council sets aside £1.8 million as a contingency fund because of uncertainty about the precise workings and funding of a number of new Government initiatives. The details of these initiatives will not be announced by the Government for a few months.

The cash would fund extra residential and nursing care places to tackle any unpredicted delays in hospital discharges, intensive learning disabilities placements and meeting Government fines set to be imposed on local authorities if they fail to meet stringent new targets for tackling delayed discharges.

Officers are also proposing to boost the budget for additional residential and nursing home placements by £71,000 next year - providing an extra 13 places to drive down the number of delayed hospital discharges.

These could be created at existing council-run and independent homes by rearranging space and employing new staff, rather than building new homes or converting existing ones.

About £25,000 would also be spent on better management of the situation to meet new Government deadlines.

A ground-breaking, £99,000 service in partnership with the Selby and York Primary Care Trust (PCT) to provide personal care visits to "customers" at home in the evening and throughout the night, is also included in the budget.

The council and PCT Total Care Scheme is also being expanded with £150,000 to meet rising costs and demand, and about 43 new home care packages - allowing older people to remain in their own homes - are also on the cards at a cost of £75,000.

The budget proposal also includes £107,000 for greater residential and community support for people with learning and physical difficulties.

Councillor Steve Galloway, Liberal Democrat leader, said treasury experts feared that delayed discharge numbers could increase, with fines spiralling past £1 million. He said: "Far from there being an increase, Labour are proposing a standstill budget which does little to address the key issue of bed-blocking. These fines house no one. They simply make it more difficult for the council to afford the new older person's accommodation that York badly needs."

Coun Viv Kind, executive member for social services, said the council would continue to fight against the Government fines but said progress had already been made in reducing bed-blocking.

She said: "This budget will help the council build on its long-standing commitment to helping people continue to live in their own homes when they want to rather than necessarily go into nursing or residential homes.

"We are also aiming to provide more specialist residential care and this, in turn, should help free up places in homes and help tackle the issue of delayed discharge from hospitals.

"This is a national concern, but we are continuing to take it seriously in York and want to channel more resources into tackling it.

"This budget also reaffirms our commitment to supporting people of all ages with disabilities, supporting highly-valued voluntary sector services, funding the council's family centres and giving grants to voluntary groups."

Consultation is continuing and most local ward committee meetings are being held this month with budget issues listed for discussion.

Updated: 11:02 Monday, January 13, 2003