Elderly and the disabled will benefit from social work budget

Feb 21 2008 By John Rowbotham

SOUTH Lanarkshire’s £120m social work budget includes spending of £59m on old folks’ services.

A total of £24m has been set aside for home care.

Councillors have increased the aids and adaptions budget by £1m to £9.5m.

That cash is used to adapt the homes of the elderly and disabled, enabling them to live independently for longer.

Council Leader Eddie McAvoy also announced that the 24-place day care and training centre, under construction in Bothwell Road, Hamilton, was due to open this summer.

The centre, to help dementia sufferers, had been developed with the help of specialists from Stirling University and is to cost the council £2.8m.

Adults with learning disabilities, who use Blantyre’s Auchintibber Centre, will have new facilities at the £9.4m integrated complex being built in Fairhill, Hamilton.

Work has also started on the construction of a new £9m integrated facility in Carluke.

Adjacent to the existing leisure centre, it will provide day care services for adults with learning disabilities.

It will also have a hall and library plus sports and recreation facilities.

Working in partnership with NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Glasgow, the council has contributed £500,000 to provide suitable care packages for adults with learning and physical disabilities who are being discharged from Kirklands Hospital, Bothwell.

The construction of a new care facility in Cambuslang marks the final stage of the hospital closure programme.