More than £4m worth of cuts have been proposed for Lewisham Council’s adult social services - with councillors concerned for the extra pressure this places on charities and care providers.

These services support frail, disabled and other vulnerable adults to be independent either in the community or in a care home.

The £4.1m forms part of £20.1m worth of cuts planned for the council as it looks to cut £30m off its budget between 2019 and 2021 –  and does not include the £17.4m overspend the council reported in July.

Lewisham Council community services executive director Aileen Buckton said the council would continue to provide its statutory services for adults, but was reviewing those systems for efficiency.

Discussing the cuts at the Healthier Communities Select Committee, she said: “We are looking at how do we make best use of resources we have and how we work with partners and organisations in the community.”

Ms Buckton said this would involve checking people are getting the right level of benefits through reviewing their adult social care packages.

Packages would then be reviewed on an annual basis to ensure residents were receiving the care they needed, she said.

“This is not about us saying ‘no,’ because if people are eligible for services then people are eligible for services. But…we have to make sure we spend it in the wisest way that we possibly can,” she told the committee.

Cllr Jacq Paschoud questioned how care providers might cope with increased pressure from the council, as a result of the cuts.

“I am worried about talking to the market,” she told the committee.

“We do need to be very careful when we talk about pressure on the market, a provider trying to meet a contract, [could find]they then can’t meet the conditions because they have pitched themselves too low.”

But a council officer said Lewisham had a “good spread” of care providers, and wasn't reliant on just one or two providers for adult social care.

Cllr John Paschoud queried the effects increasing pressures on voluntary and and not-for-profit organisations.

“I can’t help thinking if i was a member of the board of trustees for some of these organisations I would find it difficult to cope with the council, from their point of view,  saying ‘well, we will give you less money but we want you to do more stuff.'”

Other services to be cut include the customer services directorate – which will see more than £7m worth of cuts.

This includes cuts to staffed hours at hub libraries, saving the council £450,000, and air quality funding, which will see a reduction of £60,000, as well as £300,000 cut from housing advice and support and £416,000 cut from crime, enforcement and regulation reorganisation.

Proposals include a cut to the customer services directorate of £6.9m. This includes ‘front door’ customer services at the council, including services for benefits.

Residential road sweeping will be moved from weekly to fortnightly, and the last four automatic public toilets will be closed.

Resources and regeneration directorate, including financial and legal services at the council, will be cut by £3.1m.

These cuts will be discussed at various committees across the council, with the budget set by at a full council meeting in February 2019.

Of the cuts, £17m will be removed from the budget for 2019/20 with the remaining £13m to be cut in 2020/21.

An additional £25m worth of cuts is projected for the two years after 2021, according to Lewisham Council documents.