Sector reacts with dismay as Chancellor fails to pledge extra cash for NHS or social care

Charities and health experts have reacted with dismay to the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, which failed to pledge extra cash for the NHS or social care.

Philip Hammond repeated the Government’s claim that the NHS will receive an extra £10bn in funding to 2020/21 – a figure that has been challenged by MPs on the Commons health committee and health experts, including the King’s Fund thinktank.

MPs have said the Government is misleading the public over the “incorrect” figure.

In a letter to the Chancellor last month, they argued that the boost was only being reached through reductions in other areas of health spending outside of NHS England’s budget, such as public health and investment in training. They said the correct increase was actually £4.5bn.

Earlier this month, the King’s Fund also said the Government’s claim that it is putting in an extra £10bn was “inaccurate” and relies “on a significant change in the interpretation of NHS spending” compared with previous years. It said the true figure was £4.2bn.

There was widespread disappointment after the Autumn Statement, due to a lack of extra funding for social care, which is having a knock-on effect on the NHS.

Delayed discharges – where patients are medically fit to leave hospital but there is no appropriate social care package for them in the community – are at their highest level. The number of people deemed eligible for social care packages are also falling year on year.

Lord Porter, chairman of the Local Government Association, which represents councils providing social care, said: “Councils, the NHS, charities and care providers have been clear about the desperate need for the Chancellor to take action to tackle the funding crisis in social care. It is unacceptable that this has not been addressed in the Autumn Statement.

“The Government must take urgent action to properly fund social care if councils are to stand any chance of protecting the services which care for the elderly and vulnerable.

“Extra council tax-raising powers will not bring in enough money to alleviate the pressure on social care and councils will not receive the vast majority of new funding in the Better Care Fund until the end of the decade. Services supporting our elderly and vulnerable are at breaking point now.”

Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: “The Government’s failure to provide any respite for our beleaguered social care system in the Autumn Statement spells deepening misery for many older people.

“It means current trends are certain to continue: more older people will get no help or not enough help; more care companies will exit the market or fold; more people will have to fund their own care and face big, rising bills; more family members – including many in their 80s and 90s – will have to shoulder the care of a loved one alone; more care staff will quit for less stressful jobs elsewhere; and all the good people working in social care battling to sustain good standards of care will face an even tougher job than they do today.”

Stephen Dalton, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: “The Treasury has missed a golden opportunity to ease the strain on the NHS. While the Government is right to review long-term spending plans, social care services are in crisis right now.

“Our staff delivering services on the frontline this winter will find it extraordinary that the Government has turned a blind eye to the stresses and strains being felt in the health and social care system.

“Relying on a political rhetoric that promises to protect the NHS, but fails to acknowledge that a cut in social care results in a cost to the NHS, is an economic deception.”

Mike Adamson, chief executive of the British Red Cross, said it saw at first-hand the devastating effects of a lack of social care funding, with “people falling and not being found for days, people not being washed because there is no carer there to help them”.

Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said: “Yet again the Chancellor has ignored social care. In doing so the Government needs to be prepared for the detrimental impact on families, local economies and the NHS.”

Royal College of Physicians’ president, Professor Jane Dacre, said: “With recorded hospital deficits hitting £2.45 billion, growing waiting lists, underfunding of social care, and growing numbers of emergency departments closing their doors – the decision not to even mention or increase funding is alarming.

“Our NHS is underfunded, underdoctored, overstretched and today’s lack of additional funding will only exacerbate the grave situation we face.”

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said: “Hopes were raised the Chancellor would conjure up extra cash for social care, and ease the burden on the NHS and local councils struggling to keep a lid on the growing crisis.

“Instead the Government has chosen to ignore social care, preferring to look the other way as a growing number of elderly people are getting no care at all.”

Labour’s shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth said: “It’s jaw dropping that when the NHS is facing the biggest financial squeeze in its history – when waiting lists are at four million, when A&Es are in crisis – there was not a single penny piece of extra investment for the NHS.

“When it comes to Tory priorities, the NHS yet again at the back of the queue.”

Richard Murray, director of policy at The King’s Fund, said: “The absence of new money for health or social care means that the already intense pressures on services will continue to grow.

“The lack of extra money for social care funding, in particular, means we are likely to see an already threadbare safety net stretched even more thinly.

“This will impact on some of the most vulnerable people in society, and so goes against the Government’s commitment to creating a country that works for everyone.”

Professor John Appleby, chief economist of the Nuffield Trust, added: “The Chancellor’s failure to heed any of the calls for more money for social care means that vulnerable elderly and disabled people will pay the price.

“Our calculations show there are already 400,000 fewer people getting help from their local council than five years ago – that’s a huge number of people not getting help with the most basic activities of daily life, such as being able to get out of bed in the morning or get dressed.

“In addition to the considerable human cost of this lack of funding, starving social care of cash is also having a serious knock-on effect on the NHS, with more and more patients trapped in hospital beds when they could leave with more local authority support.”

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