Social care needs 3.5% increases ‘just to keep pace’

Social care budgets need real-terms annual increases of 3.5% just to keep pace with the ageing population, according to a pre-budget briefing from the King’s Fund.

In an overview targeted at MPs ahead of tomorrow’s emergency budget, the leading health thinktank said that cuts to social care budgets would further restrict local care services, potentially leading to significant increases in unmet need, and place additional burdens on carers.

It added that as 39% of local authority spending on adult social care came from council tax, freezing the amount councils could collect would “leave authorities little room for manoeuvre” in responding to cuts in central grants.

The King’s Fund argued that care services have an important role to play in keeping people healthy and preventing emergency admissions to hospital, and suggested that it was “crucial” for decisions on unprotected social care services, and protected NHS ones to be taken in tandem.

While it said that firm decisions on future spending were not expected until the autumn’s spending review, tomorrow’s emergency budget would “set the context” for what is to come, and may include changes that would have a “direct impact” on health and social care budgets.

Last week, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services published its own briefings pack on adult social services, highlighting innovation and cost-effectiveness.

It was sent to MPs and around 400 peers with social care interests.