Cllr Ian Hudspeth, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, responds to survey by the Care and Support Alliance.
“With people living longer, increases in costs and decreases in funding, adult social care is at breaking point.
“Councils in England will have seen their core funding from central government reduce by £16 billion between 2010 and 2020 – almost exactly the same as their planned spend for adult social care for 2017/18.
“Over recent years, councils have protected adult social care relative to other services. But the scale of the overall funding picture for local government as a whole means adult social care services still face a £3.5 billion funding gap by 2025, just to maintain existing standards of care.
“Inevitably, given the current financial constraints, councils will have to keep everything under review and may seek to find more cost effective ways of meeting people’s needs or may no longer be able to provide some of the services that were available previously.
“Action is needed now. The Government needs to address immediate funding pressures impacting on the system today and ensure its Green Paper will deliver reforms to future-proof the long term sustainability of adult social care.”
Notes to editors
- The LGA’s green paper is available here. The consultation closed on 26 September.
- The LGA will respond to the findings in a further publication in the autumn, which will be used to influence the Government’s own expected green paper and Spending Review.
'The lives we want to lead'
The LGA green paper for adult social care and wellbeing
Adult social care and support matters. High quality social care and support helps people live the life they want to live. It helps bind our communities, it sustains our NHS and it provides essential economic value to our country.