SPENDING on adults with learning disabilities hit £28 million, a council care boss said.

Swindon Borough Council paid out on average £37,300 for each person with learning disabilities they supported.

Moving people from specialist accommodation back to the town was saving some cash from the budget, councillors heard.

But the complexity of some people’s needs meant just a few extra patients could play havoc with council budgets, said Brian Ford, lead member for adult social care.

However, he added: “It is the individual that must be looked after and looked after well and if that costs an extra half a million pounds, then sorry, but it costs an extra half a million pounds.”

Sue Wald, head of adult social care at the borough, said her teams supported around 750 adults with learning disabilities. Around half are cared for in residential facilities, while the remainder live in supported accommodation.

Although supporting adults with learning disabilities took around 17 per cent of the council’s budget, Ms Wald said comparisons with other councils in the south west showed Swindon was acting efficiently: “Our outcomes based on spend showed good value for money.”

Coun Ford told the council's scrutiny committee this week officers had managed to save more than £1.1m on early disabilities services.

He said: “We have historically had an awful lot of out of area placements, which is not good for the recipient. It’s not good for the staff and It’s not good for the relations of that person. By bringing people back in that will save us quite a bit of money.”

However, he admitted not enough people with learning disabilities who were supported by the council had had their needs reviewed. By March last year, only 44.4 per cent of service users had received a review, well below the 75 per cent target. Coun Ford said: “We are aware that is not good.”

Overall, the council social care budget was £72m, Ms Wald said. That included £10m in ringfenced NHS fund cash.

Coun Ford admitted: "It’s not flavour of the month. It’s something that’s costing an awful lot of money that most people don’t really want to know about."

But the topic of funding social care could soon become a hot one, he said. The government is expected to soon publish its green paper on reforming the care system until at least the autumn.

"The whole profile will be heightened when we get the government to issue their intentions on funding. I think it will then probably become quite a topic on the doorstep," Coun Ford said.