Responding to the Association of Directors of Adult Social
Services’ budget survey 2017, Chairman of the Local Government
Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, Cllr Izzi Seccombe,
said:
“This survey shows that the £2 billion of extra funding announced
in the Spring Budget, while helpful to councils in meeting some
short term pressures, is not a long-term solution and still
leaves councils facing a £2.3 billion funding gap by 2020.
“It also demonstrates that councils are doing all they can to
protect social care budgets, but inevitably given the scale of
reductions in funding they have faced since 2010, along with the
growing costs and demand for social care, and with the wider
pressures across local government, further savings need to be
made.
“The report is also significant in highlighting that the
financial pressures in 2017/18 in providing support for
working age adults with learning disabilities are now greater
than providing care for older people. This shows it is important
to ensure any solution for social care is about more than just
caring for elderly people.
“The Government should set out in detail its proposals at the
earliest opportunity for how it will close the funding gap and
deliver a long-term sustainable funding solution for social care.
“Adult social care is at a tipping point, and unless urgent
action is taken we will continue to see more and more of the
consequences of underfunding that we have seen in recent years,
particularly care providers either handing back contracts to
councils or ceasing trading altogether.”
