Care providers back case for unitary council

The Independent Care Group has thrown its weight behind plans to create a unitary authority for North Yorkshire.

The group has backed a move by the current North Yorkshire County Council to scrap the existing two-tier system with both districts and a county council and replace them with a single authority instead.

Some councils in England are currently preparing bids to reorganise their local government systems, although some are likely to meet with stiff resistance from district councils.

In August, the County Councils network published a report, which claimed scrapping districts and counties completely in England and replacing them with unitaries could deliver £3bn in savings over five years.

However, the District Councils Network retaliated with a report of their own, which warned that bigger local authorities are not necessarily ‘better or cheaper’.

Group chair Mike Padgham said North Yorkshire’s bid for a unitary ‘provides the best option’ for ‘facing and overcoming’ many of the key challenges in delivering social care in years to come.

https://socialcare.today/2020/09/30/care-providers-back-case-for-unitary-council/