Social care funding to become 'even bleaker'

 
Wire8 May 2013

The "already bleak outlook" for social care funding is expected to become "even bleaker", according to a survey on social care budgets.

Carried out by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), the survey shows the association plans to save £800 million in the next 12 months - resulting in a shortfall in services for older people and people with disabilities.

Between 2011 and 2014, £2.68 billion will have been removed from the adult social care budget, ADASS said.

This decrease in spending, or what ADASS describes as a "saving", comes about by "providing different, more cost effective packages of care, or reduced levels of care, to many elderly or disabled people", according to Sandie Keene, ADASS president.

Two trends indicated by the survey show that 13% of the planned reductions in spending - £104 million - will result in direct withdrawal of services.

Mrs Keene said: "Gazing into the next two years, without additional investment from that already planned, an already bleak outlook becomes even bleaker.

"Directors everywhere are well aware of the difficult economic choices the country is facing and having to make. And we are well aware of the enormous help given to our departments by inward transfers of NHS funds.

"Social services departments, too, have gone many an extra mile to make their services more efficient although, as our survey shows, these efficiencies are sometimes nowhere near so 'painless' as they sometimes seem."

The survey was conducted in April of this year and 145 of the 152 top-tier social services authorities in England responded.

When asked which areas had been affected to date, 30% of directors said that fewer people can access services, and nearly 50% said that providers are facing financial difficulties.

The survey said 86% of directors thought that the quality of life for services users had not been lowered, with 5% saying that it had.

Looking to the next two years, 55% of directors feel that the quality of life for users will not worsen, while almost 19% think it will.

Some 50% of ADASS members think that fewer people will be able to access adult social care services in two years' time, 57% think providers will be facing greater financial difficulty and 42% anticipate more legal challenges.

Mrs Keene added: "Our survey this year has drawn a mixed picture of our departments. It isn't all bad news: there is a clear belief that the pressures on services on the ground will be mitigated by the ingenuity, competence and professionalism of our staff.

"But it is equally clear that we continue to need a comprehensive reform of our social care and health system - a reform which brings in and adequately acknowledges the implications of funding change, and which successfully brings together the fully focused and effectively integrated resources of both local authority and NHS services."

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "We took the decision to prioritise adult social care and provide extra funding to help in maintaining access to services for the first time ever.

"We are also bringing in a cap on reasonable care costs to ensure everyone will get the care they need and end the unfairness of, and fear caused by, unlimited care costs.

"We have already seen examples of local authorities redesigning services to find more efficient ways of working.

"Many local authorities are innovating and achieving much greater integration between health and care services, thereby improving care for people and optimising use of resources available."

Helga Pile, Unison's national officer for social services, said: "Our members in social services will continue to do their utmost to deliver quality care to the elderly and disabled, but they are fighting an uphill struggle.

"They are losing funding, losing staff and losing confidence in Government policy, which shifts and skates over this very serious area of providing decent long term help for the elderly.

"Councils are responding to the Government's budget cuts by raising eligibility criteria, which is unfairly shifting the burden on to family carers.

"The Government should face up to its moral responsibility to ensure quality care and instead of crying crocodile tears, give councils the means to do the job."

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