Social care may be allotted £400m NHS funding

Adult social care departments at English councils could get around £400m in transferred NHS funding to offset the effects of service cuts that would otherwise impact the health service.

The Department of Health (DH) has discussed the move as part of its submission to the Treasury’s Spending Review, LGC’s sister title Health Service Journal has learned.

Local government leaders said the proposal would be an acknowledgement of the interdependence of health and social care funding at a time when health services are being guaranteed real-terms increases while councils are bracing for 25% cuts.

DH said it could not comment on confidential spending review discussions, and it was not clear whether the proposals had been included in the final submission.

NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson has already warned managers to expect cuts in social care services to lead to extra demand, and that transfers of funding from the NHS to councils should be taken “on the chin”.

Sir David is believed to have been concerned by Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) modelling showing cuts of around 25% over four years to council social care budgets will lead to a near-trebling of the numbers of disabled people being denied council care.

The PSSRU said that the combination of cuts and demographic trends would mean that 260,000 people classified as “high dependency” would be denied formal care in 2012-13 compared with 90,000 if funding grew by 3.5% a year in real terms.

Richard Jones, president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services said the stage was set for a “cliff edge” difference in the way the spending review affected councils and the health service.

 “If this is the first sign of a strategic shift it is welcome, but the level of shift that is going to be required is massive,” he said.

He added that extra funding focused on reablement or preventing hospital readmissions within 30 days of discharge would be wise – and that the level of funding apparently suggested by DH was similar to that proposed for the last government’s axed free personal care proposals.

Mr Jones said social services departments would be feeling increased strain over the coming winter even before the expected cuts took place.

Andrew Cozens, strategic adviser for children, adults and health services at Local Government Improvement & Development (formerly the IDeA), said increased NHS funding could help build joint-commissioning work and joint needs assessments.

“I don’t think it’s a question of giving money to local government, I think it’s a question of how services are commissioned and the interface of health and social care,” he said.

“£400m is nothing like the scale of the cuts we’re talking about in adult social care, but it will perhaps help mitigate the impact on the health-service side.”