LANCASHIRE County Council is deploying extra staff to help keep older residents out of hospital over the winter months.

The authority's Cabinet has approved a raft of measures to support its elderly and vulnerable clients during the coming cold weather,

The 'Adult Social Care - Winter Plan 2018/19' aims to provide support to keep people well over winter, avoid unnecessary hospital admissions and reduce delays caused when people are discharged into social care.

The measures in include: deploying an extra social work team to help the council cope with the surges in demand for assessments; increasing the crisis and reablement services to support people to help them live independently; extending the 'Home First' scheme, where people receive discharge assessments in their home rather than a hospital ward; and increasing capacity in the home night time support and 24/7 mental health support services.

Louise Taylor, the county council's executive director for adult services, said: "There are always extra pressures on the health and social care system at this time of year and the winter plan is crucial in helping us to ensure people continue to get the support they need to stay fit and well.

"We've worked closely with partner organisations to ensure people have the best care to support them to live independently, prevent them needing hospital treatment and ensure people are not unnecessarily taking up hospital beds because of social care delays.

"We'll continue to monitor the situation very closely to ensure we make the best use of the extra resources over Christmas and the weeks that follow."