Social services chiefs urge Chancellor deliver £1bn emergency adult care funding

Chancellor Philip Hammond should announce £1 billion in emergency funding for social care to stave off a short-term crisis, social services chiefs have said.

The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (Adass) said more elderly and disabled people would not get the care they need without extra funding, placing a greater burden on 6.5 million family members and carers, and on the NHS.

The association stressed that 97% of council social services directors it surveyed said the Government’s December package to boost budgets by £900 million would make “very little or no difference” to funding pressures.

In its submission to the Treasury ahead of March’s Budget, Adass called for moves to plug funding gaps up to 2020 and help with recruitment and retention of care staff and social workers.

Margaret Willcox, president-elect of Adass, said: “It is imperative that social care is treated as a national priority because current solutions go nowhere near what is needed to meet the increased needs for, and costs of, care for older and disabled people.

“A cumulative total of £5.5 billion has been cut from council social care budgets by the end of this financial year. If the huge projected council overspends of £441 million cannot be funded from savings in other council services or from reserves, even greater reductions in social care services will follow in the next few months and many councils risk failing to meet their statutory duties.

“Emergency assistance of £1 billion – which is at least what all leading sector experts say is needed to fund adult social care next year – and distributed on a needs-based formula, will prevent further deterioration whilst working on a longer term solution, and would go some way towards stabilising the system for councils, providers and the NHS.”

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