Briefings and responses

We estimate that local government faces an overall funding gap of £5.8 billion by 2019/20, taking into account future funding and the full range of pressures facing councils.

We welcome the updated PPE guidance from Public Health England around social care settings, the first one focusing on care homes was issued last week. We now urgently need to see the updated guidance on domiciliary care. 

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the scope and effectiveness of section 75 arrangements. We have chosen not to answer all 30 specific questions included in the supporting document to the call for evidence. Instead, the high-level views of the LGA about the scope and effectiveness of section 75 financial flexibilities are summarised in paragraphs 5 – 19.

Councils are determined to prevent and stop domestic abuse in all its forms. They play a vital role protecting older people from abuse through a range of front-line services, and have a statutory responsibility for safeguarding vulnerable adults with care and support needs.

The underfunding of adult social care and support sector is impacting on the quality of life of people who have care and support needs. It is also creating a fragile provider market, putting workforce and unpaid family carers under further strain, creating unmet and under-met need and impacting on social care’s ability to help mitigate demand pressures on the NHS.

It is vital that the Government uses the Spending Review and its forthcoming green paper to deliver sustainable funding for social care for the long-term.  

Protecting and supporting communities, including the most vulnerable, remains councils’ top priority. Council staff are working 24 hours a day to help delay the virus, minimise the spread of infection and keep people safe and well. Council colleagues are doing an amazing job in hugely challenging circumstances and we pay the highest tribute to their commitment and dedication.

Together with NHS England, local authorities and the LGA have undertaken a range of measures to improve preparedness for winter.

In recent years, adult social care has been propped up by one-off, piecemeal injections of funding. This hampers councils’ ability to plan for anything beyond a short-term horizon. Social care and public health funding should therefore be given the same long-term certainty as NHS funding.

The NHS does not operate in isolation. The commitment for increased funding for the NHS will only be maximised if there is an equivalent scale of investment in social care, public health and prevention services that both improve people’s health, wellbeing and independence and relieve pressure on frontline NHS services.