Councillors in South Lanarkshire approved a 'home first' approach to care with aims to expand home services and improve hospital discharges.
On Wednesday, elected members at the social work resources committee approved plans to develop the 'home first' approach by recruiting 85 new staff.
The 'home first' model was developed last year and aims to ensure people can be cared for from at home to support timely discharges from hospital and to prevent avoidable admissions to hospital.
The proposal for the approach to be expanded will ensure that there is a much more robust element of care at home.
To expand the approach, a total of 85 posts will be required on a permanent basis, and there are eight different roles including an operations manager, social work and 54 home carers.
Councillor Robert Brown questioned whether gaining the number of staff has been challenging.
He said: “I wonder if you’re finding problems in recruitment, it’s a significant issue to get enough staff in place for this sort of thing?”
It was stated that increasing the workforce is a big issue, however a live campaign was launched last week in anticipation of these posts being approved and it is hoped that it will attract staff.
The total cost of the expansion equates to £2.9m per year which will cover the 85 permanent posts.
The 'home first' approach team will aim to help to reduce hospital readmissions due to supporting people from home and ensuring their needs are met.
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