The Vulnerable In England To Lose Care Funding
Council Chiefs in England have warned that the vulnerable and frail people will go without the care they need.
This comes after Chiefs after ministers in England set out funding plans for care.
The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (Adass) criticised a decision to hold back half of the £500m promised to help plug staff shortages.
The government’s commitment to the system for supporting disabled adults and the elderly, came after ministers unveiled £2bn of grants for the next two years. A total of £600m has been held back by the Department of Health and Social Care. However, Some £250m of it came from the £500m originally promised last year to support the workforce through measures such as extra training places.
About one in 10 posts are vacant with staffing shortages rising by more than 50% in the past year.
There are currently more than 500,000 people waiting for care.
Adass President, Sarah McClinton said; “This plan leaves the government’s vision in tatters. It ducks the hard decision and kicks the can down the road until after the next election. Adult social care is in crisis now’s not the time to be holding funding back.
Many more people won’t get the quality care and support they need, forcing more family and friends to step in where they can, more people deteriorating and being admitted to hospital and further damage to the NHS and economy.”
‘Not remotely enough’
The funding, which was first announced last year, includes money for digital social care records, home adaptations, and for councils to pay for care places – most care is provided by private and voluntary sector organisations.
But the £2bn of investment is just a fraction of what is normally spent on social care grants from the Department of Health and Social Care represents just one funding stream councils rely on alongside others such as other central government grants, council tax and business rates.
In the past year more than £20bn was spent on care services and over the past 10 years councils have had to reduce the amount they spend on social care once inflation and the rising demand from the ageing population is taken into account, according to the Health Foundation, because of the squeeze on their overall funding.
Co-chair of the Care and Support Alliance Caroline Abrahams- which represents more than 70 charities and charity director of Age UK, said the measures announced “aren’t remotely enough to transform social care”.
Millions of older and disabled people and their carers “needed something far bigger, bolder and more genuinely strategic to give them hope for the future”, she said.
She continued: “With quite a chunk of the money originally promised for care now no longer available, our members are telling us this is just the latest in a long series of disappointments so far as recent government performance on social care is concerned.”
The government said the £600m being held back would still be invested in social care, but it was now assessing where best to invest it in the system.
But health minister, Helen Whately said the investment would make a difference.
“This package of reforms focuses on recognising care with the status it deserves, while also focusing on the better use of technology, the power of data and digital care records, and extra funding for councils – aiming to make a care system we can be proud of,” she said.
BBC/Oyenike Oyeniyi
