The County Council is running a public consultation to understand people’s views across Hampshire on options to change and reduce some local services as part of steps to help the Authority address a remaining budget shortfall of at least £97.6 million for 2025/26.
The Future Services Consultation – Spring 2025 runs from 12 March to 7 May 2025, and signals the next stage in the County Council’s plans to ensure it can focus support to the most vulnerable people in Hampshire while meeting its legal duty to deliver a balanced budget.
Prioritising the delivery of vital public services to residents who are most in need is our crucial core function. This includes protecting children from harm, social care for older people, and supporting adults and children with disabilities and additional needs. Demand and costs in these areas are now at record levels, putting immense ongoing pressure on our budgets. With no fundamental changes to how central Government funds social care pressures, we continue to seek greater savings ourselves, so we can keep delivering core services (those which we are required to provide by law) to those in Hampshire who need our help the most.
Therefore, a number of further savings options are now being proposed, and we are inviting residents to provide their views on these proposed service changes, their potential impacts, as well as whether there are any other ways in which the savings might be made.
The option within the consultation which may be of particular interest to you / your organisation is:
- Older Adults Day Services: for the County Council’s HCC Care and Support Service to stop running the older adult day care services at Chesil Lodge (Winchester), and Newman Court (Basingstoke). These day care services provide a range of individual and group activities (e.g. crafts, exercise, singing) together with personal care. People currently attending day care services and their carers would continue to have their eligible needs met either through these services transferring to an independent provider or through alternative care provision.
How to have your say
The consultation runs from midday on 12 March to 11:59pm on 7 May 2025.
Views can be provided on some or all of the four service change proposals presented in the consultation.
Feedback can be provided online via the consultation webpage: www.hants.gov.uk/future-services-consultation
Copies of the information packs and the consultation Response Form, along with Easy Read versions of these documents, are also available to view, download and print on the consultation webpage. The documents can be listened to via screen reader and ‘Read Aloud’ technology.
If copies of the Information Pack or the Response Form are needed in another language or format (such as audio, large print, or Braille), or if you have any queries about the consultation, please contact: [email protected].
Responses can also be emailed directly to Hampshire County Council using the email address: [email protected] or sent in writing to Freepost HAMPSHIRE. (Please also write PandO, IEU, FM09 on the back of the envelope).
Where possible, people are encouraged to consider completing the consultation Response Form online as this will help save money, both in postage and in staff time in manually entering responses to the consultation. Internet access is available through local Hampshire County Council libraries.
Final decisions on the proposals will be made by the County Council’s Cabinet as part of their decision meetings during summer 2025.
Your views count
We very much hope that you will take the time to respond to this important public consultation on the future of local services in Hampshire.