Local Government Association report says an additional £1.3bn of additional funding is needed immediately to stabilise care market
The Care Act could become an “unrealistic wish list†of social care support unless the government provides more funding for the system.
That is one of the warnings from social care and health service leaders set out in a report published today by the Local Government Association on the state of social care.
The LGA said that historic underfunding of adult social care had brought the system to crisis point, with the strain on providers particularly severe. It called on the government to provide more cash for social care through the Autumn statement and said at least £1.3bn of additional funding was needed immediately to stabilise the market, with a further £1.3bn needed by 2019-20.
The association pointed to warning signs from professional bodies and frontline services that current funding levels were not sustainable. These included:
Nick Forbes, senior vice chair of the LGA, said: “The government must use the autumn statement to provide councils with the funding to ensure we have a fair care system where everybody can receive safe, high-quality care and support.â€Â
Sector leaders also shared their concerns through a series of short essays in the report.
Lynda Tarpey, director of the Think Local, Act Personal safeguarding initiative, said: “We are starting to see evidence that budgets set aside for personalising services are being cut – including the amounts in people’s personal budgets. This is not a trend we want to see.â€
Vicky McDermott, chair of the Care and Support Alliance, pointed to the rising numbers of people being “pushed out of the system†– an estimated one million older people in England have an unmet need for care and support. She added that people who do get the care they need were now considered “lucky, rather than the normâ€.
Stephen Dorrell, chair of the NHS confederation, said politicians persisted “in believing that the NHS is a special caseâ€, despite the evidence that cuts to social care services increased pressure on the health service, with GP visits, A&E attendance and admissions all on the rise.
He said acute hospitals were increasingly being used as “unbelievably expensive care homesâ€, which was a “grotesque†waste of resources and failed to ensure people’s needs, whether they be for social care support or high-cost NHS services, were met.
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