Social care should receive greater funding
This really thoughtful article speaks to some work we are doing on prevention rather than cure in terms of acute rural health settings. It tells us:
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, according to a new national public poll published by the Local Government Association.
Just 11 per cent of the £129 billion health and care budget is spent by councils on adult social care, with the remainder on health services.
The poll reveals nearly two thirds of respondents (62 per cent) think adult social care services should receive a much higher proportion of health and care funding.
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.
Councils spend approximately 35 per cent 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.
Sixty per cent of people polled also thought adult social care already received a higher proportion of the total health and care budget than 11 per cent.
The findings follow new analysis by the LGA which estimates adult social care services face a potential funding gap of at least £2.6 billion.
In its Autumn Statement submission, the LGA says based on “fair price of care” calculations by provider organisations, the immediate pressures threatening the stability of the care provider market could amount to at least £1.3 billion.
On top of that, councils also estimate that by 2019/20, a further £1.3 billion will be required to deal with the additional pressures brought about by an ageing population, inflation, and the cost of paying the National Living Wage.
‘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.
The LGA’s Adult social care funding: 2016 state of the nation report can be downloaded here