LGA responds to iMPOWER report on adult social care funding

"When the £2 billion for adult social care was announced by the Government in last year’s Spring Budget, it said this could be spent in three ways – meeting adult social care needs, reducing pressures on the NHS, and ensuring the local provider market was supported."

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Responding to a report by iMPOWER analysing how the £2 billion announced by the Government for adult social care has been spent, Cllr Izzi Seccombe, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, said:

“When the £2 billion for adult social care was announced by the Government in last year’s Spring Budget, it said this could be spent in three ways – meeting adult social care needs, reducing pressures on the NHS, and ensuring the local provider market was supported.

“Councils are absolutely committed to tackling the pressures on hospitals, and have made significant progress reducing delayed transfers of care attributable to social care.

“However it is vital they are given the freedom and flexibility to spend social care money where they feel it can be most effective in local communities.

“Councils need to be able to prioritise prevention work, which is key to reducing the pressures on the health service and keeping people out of hospital in the first place, so they can lead fulfilling and independent lives in their communities and close to their loved ones.

“Despite the extra funding, adult social care services face an annual funding gap of more than £2 billion by 2020. It is essential the Government injects new money right now to tackle the immediate pressures facing adult social care, and uses the upcoming green paper to set out how it proposes to deliver a long-term sustainable funding solution for adult social care that secures care for older and disabled people for generations to come.”