Most of Flintshire’s rising social care bill going to private providers, report shows
Flintshire County Council’s social care costs are rising fast, and most of the increase is going to private care providers.
More than 70 per cent of the £6.474m budget pressure the service faced over the past year came from higher fees paid to independent firms providing care for adults and children, according to a draft council report.
The council is set to add an extra £7m to its social care budget for 2026/27, with £6m of it covering the rising cost of care it pays others to provide.
That includes care home places for adults and children, support for people in their own homes, and help for young people leaving care.
A further £1m will go into children’s services to cope with rising demand and keep children safe.
The draft annual report is due to be presented to councillors at Flintshire’s Social and Health Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 4 June.
It puts total extra spending on social services at £13.474m.
Despite the budget pressure, the service made savings of £756,000 over the year.
The report’s author, the council’s Director of Social Services, describes the past year as “challenging”, citing rising demand, problems keeping staff and two inspections by Care Inspectorate Wales that flagged concerns about the standard of practice.
The Director’s summary is a yearly assessment the council is required by law to produce.
It acknowledges the service is on “a journey of improvement” and that more work is needed to achieve “consistently high-quality and assured practice across all areas.”
The assessment draws on two Care Inspectorate Wales inspections carried out during 2025/26.
The report identifies problems recruiting and keeping staff across several roles, including social workers, occupational therapists, home care workers and reablement workers, the staff who help people regain independence after illness or a hospital stay.
It describes these difficulties as “national and sector-wide challenges.”
The council says its improvement priorities for 2026/27 are shaped by the inspection findings, by lessons from reviews into the care of individual children, and by wider work on how agencies cooperate.
Plans include rolling out a new computer case management system called Mosaic, testing AI tools to free up staff time, and putting a new child protection model in place before a planned launch in September 2026.
The council also intends to review its structure to reduce its reliance on agency staff.
The report sets out progress made during the year.
The council now provides more of its own foster placements, reducing its reliance on private fostering agencies.
The Mockingbird fostering programme, which Flintshire was the first in Wales to run in partnership with the Fostering Network, has grown to three active hubs.
A fourth is due to launch over summer 2026 and a fifth is in development.
The council’s Grow Your Own scheme, which trains its own social workers, has supported 46 people over the past decade, and 35 of them still work for Flintshire.
Tŷ Croes Atti, a new council-run residential and dementia care home, opened in November 2025.
The Coed y Ddraig hub in Mold opened in February 2026.
It was built jointly with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board and the charity Hft.
The draft report is due to go to Cabinet on 16 June, with a final version due to be signed off in July.
It will be published on the Flintshire County Council website in English and Welsh by the end of September 2026.
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