A council report published recently shows the growing pressure that social services in the Vale of Glamorgan are under.

The Vale of Glamorgan Council report, which is a review of services for adults with care need, states that the county's ageing population is projected to increase by about 20% from 2021 to 2031.

Data in the report also shows that more residents and their families are choosing to receive care in their own homes.

Adding to all of this is the council's recruitment and retention challenge with social care staff leaving for jobs in other sectors.

Council statistics showing how waiting times for domiciliary care packages in the Vale of Glamorgan have decreased.

However, the report does highlight some areas of improvement, like reduced waiting times for care packages.

The report will be discussed at a meeting of the council's healthy living and social care scrutiny committee on Tuesday, June 11.

Looking at the data in more depth, it shows that the proportion of people aged over 65 in the Vale of Glamorgan is projected to increase from 29,207 in 2021 to 35,158 by 2031.

This increase is less than that of the period between 2011 and 2021 which was 24.9% according to Census data.

With regards to domiciliary care, citizens were receiving a total of 14,579 weekly hours of care and support as of March 31, 2023.

By March 31, 2024, this number had increased to 1,016 citizens receiving 16,058 weekly hours of care and support.

Vale Council statistics showing how demand for respite has increased in the county.

With the increased frailty of people being cared for at home, there has also been an increase in demand on respite and emergency placements.

Vale of Glamorgan Council's report states that respite usage for the council-owned residential homes now exceeds pre-pandemic levels.

The local authority, like others across the UK, had to make a number of cost-cutting measures this year to help it save millions of pounds.

As a result of growing pressures, like rising costs and increased demand on its services, Vale of Glamorgan Council has been left to tackle a budget gap of £7m.

The pressure on budgets for individual departments was evident last year as well.

In its report on social care services, the council said that, despite careful management and oversight, there was an overspend of about £2.1m on the community care and residential home provision budgets for the 2023/24 financial year.

The healthy living and social care scrutiny committee meeting can be viewed live at 5pm on the council's YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@vogcmeetingrecordings1014.