Concerns have been raised over plans to cut the amount spent on social care in Southampton as the council lays out its plans for avoiding effective bankruptcy.

Southampton City Council has outlined social care as a “main focus” within its plans to balance the books as it faces a £20.9m shortfall.

A report into the authority’s finances published last week showed that the council spent 85.6 per cent of its core spending power on the sector in 21/22.

Its nearest neighbour in comparison averaged 69.9 per cent with only Blackpool spending more than Southampton at 90.4 per cent.

But now, as it faces a possible £56m shortfall by 2026/27, money-saving proposals are being considered with the report stating £87.04 could be saved on adult social care per head.

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Meanwhile, the council report suggests £31.19 could be saved per head on children’s social care, leading to an overall saving of more than £29m.

Concerns have been raised however about the effect this would have on vulnerable residents with Tory councillor, Steven Galton stating, “People should not have to be fighting the system”.

Speaking at an overview and scrutiny meeting, he said: “I’m wondering how these (proposals) are even being considered because to me, surely our job is to look after the most vulnerable and when we’re talking about SEND and special educational needs, that should not be something that we should be scrimping on.

“We should be ensuring we meet, at the minimum statutory but the quicker we can identify and get the right support in for those children, it is life-changing.”

But deputy Labour leader and cabinet member for adults, health and housing, Cllr Lorna Fielker said the amount the city spends on wellbeing is “far greater than the rest of the country”.

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“We’re almost at levels of Blackpool. So what we know is that we’re not doing something quite right here and other places similar to us are spending much lower amounts of their core spending power.

“We know that we can do things differently because other local authorities are doing things differently and meeting those responsibilities.

“We need to go and look to that and make sure we change our services to match that because we need to support our children properly, we need to do it early and we need to make sure we’re doing that in the most financially efficient way.”

Proposals for the sector include weekly meetings to review its financial position and “transforming the service”.

As an area of concern, social care will also have fortnightly “intensive care” sessions involving service directors to check the latest position with savings.

It comes alongside reviews of the home-to-school transport service, major partnerships with the operators of the city’s highways, St Mary’s Leisure Centre and the Guildhall.

Major capital programmes have also been paused with the authority cutting the number of vehicles in its fleet and reducing the amount of buildings it occupies.