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LGA - Councils respond to ADASS Budget Survey 2016
Cllr Nick Forbes, Senior Vice Chair at the LGA, says report makes clear that local authorities' extra income through council tax rise will not bring in enough money to plug growing funding gaps and prevent the need for further cutbacks to social care services
"The urgent need to tackle our adult social care funding crisis was acknowledged by the Government in its decision to allow councils to raise council tax by 2 per cent to pay for adult social care in 2016/17.
"However, as this helpful report makes absolutely clear, the extra income this year will not bring in enough money to plug growing funding gaps and prevent the need for further cutbacks to social care services. Councils will continue to do all they can to maintain the services that older and vulnerable people rely on but there is little scope left for further efficiencies to be made.
"The growing demand of our ageing population, as well as increasing costs following the introduction of the National Living Wage, are squeezing care home and domiciliary care providers to the point of collapse. A lack of funding is already leading to providers pulling out of the publicly-funded care market and shifting their attention towards people who are able to fully fund their own care.
"With people living longer and with more complex health conditions, we must move away from simply trying to ensure people are able to eat, drink and get dressed.
"It cannot be solely left to local council taxpayers to fix our chronically underfunded social care system. Councils, care providers, charities and the NHS are all united around the need for central government to fully fund adult social care as this is vital to ensure our loved ones enjoy the dignified and independent quality of life they deserve.
"As a starting point, the Government should bring forward £700 million of desperately-needed social care funding earmarked for the end of the decade to allow councils to protect vital social care services essential to easing the pressure on care providers and on the NHS."
Read the ADASS budget survey 2016 - on the ADASS website
