DORSET County Council has come under fire amid claims it is planning cuts to mental health services.

Lib Dem councillors on the authority have hit out at proposals for a restructuring of adult social care and mental health locality teams in the county with the aim of making cost savings, including a reduction of 15 per cent of its mental health and substance abuse teams.

The ACCoRD (assessment of care co-ordination review Dorset) is the subject of an internal consultation and the proposals could be introduced next April next year.

The review focuses on people directing their own care with an increase in personal budget but the Lib Dems claim this comes with a simultaneous cut to the numbers of staff qualified to offer them advice and support, with the number of social workers reduced from 145 to 116 and care support co-ordinators cut from 50 to 42.

The proposals do include an increase in the number of occupational therapy assistants or community care officers from 85 to 103 with the total number of staff in the areas covered by the review reduced from 308 to 288.

The councillors say the reductions will impact on mental health teams and other services and will therefore affect vulnerable people in the community.

Catherine Driscoll, director for adult and community services at Dorset County Council, said: “Dorset County Council is going through a number of staff restructuring programmes in order to ensure that services are able to meet outcomes for Dorset residents within reduced financial resources.

“ACCoRD is one of these internal restructuring programmes, developed in partnership with staff.

“It forms a crucial part of our ongoing efforts to maintain high standards of care in the face of increasing demand and reduced financial resources for our adult social care services across Dorset.

“While the need to make savings is important, the key aim of the review is to establish how we can make better use of our limited resources.

“Our intention is to improve outcomes and experiences for our customers and carers - without a reduction in the quality of our front-line services - by working more flexibly, reducing bureaucracy and focusing on early help and intervention.

“The proposals do not include a withdrawal of services, so are not the subject of public consultation.

“We are still discussing these proposals with our teams and will directly engage with community groups and members of the public when we have confirmed our plans.”