A new report from the Local Government Association (LGA) estimates that adult social care services face a potential funding gap of at least £2.6 billion.
Adult social care is an absolutely vital public service that supports some of our most vulnerable people and promotes the wellbeing and independence of many more. The LGA believe that "for too long the service has too often been seen by decision-makers as an adjunct to the NHS, rather than a service of equal importance. A lack of recognition in terms of profile has combined with a lack of recognition in terms of funding to place our care and support system under enormous pressure. This has been particularly acute since 2010 and although governments of the day have responded with their own well intentioned solutions, they have failed to properly resolve the gap between available resources on the one hand and cost, demand and pressures on the other."
In a new national public poll carried out for the report launch, two thirds of people believe a greater share of the total health budget should be spent on care for the elderly and disabled provided by councils. Just 11% of the £129 billion health and care budget is spent by councils on adult social care, with the remainder on health services. However, councils spend approximately 35% of their budgets on adult social care and are increasingly having to divert money away from other cherished local services such as bus routes, leisure centres, and road repairs to plug gaps. Yet more than three quarters of respondents to the LGA's poll think councils spend a much smaller proportion of their budgets on adult social care. 60% of people polled also thought adult social care already received a higher proportion of the total health and care budget than 11%.
The LGA, which represents more than 370 councils in England and Wales, says the only way to deal with the significant pressures facing both adult social care and the NHS is to invest more in services that help to keep people out of hospital and to stay in their communities, which is what the vast majority of people want. This is at a time when record numbers of people find themselves unable to leave hospital due to a lack of care in the community and increasing numbers of people unable to get care are having to turn to stretched A&E departments instead.
'State of the Nation' is a collection of essays from senior sector leaders and experts which sets out the scale of underfunding in adult social care, and the consequences this is having on people, providers and workers and the NHS. This report can be found on the LGA website.