Adult care crisis as budgets squeezed

ACHARITY has calculated figures showing how Halton Borough Council’s ability to spend on adult social care could have shrunk in recent years.

There is significantly less money to care for older people who live in rural areas across England according to a new report, Care In Places, by The Salvation Army.

Adult social care is largely funded by business rates, council tax and other charges but areas with lower house prices, fewer businesses cannot raise as much money as more urban areas.

A charity spokeswoman said this has led to deep levels of funding inequality across the country and prevents most local authorities from providing adequate social care for older residents.

As part of the report,

The Salvation Army used current data from bodies such as the Ministry Of Housing, Communities And Local Government, the Revenue Support Grant and the Local Authority Revenue Outturn dataset to evaluate business rate income, grants and council tax available to each local authority. The charity then worked out a per head figure based on the number of people aged 65 and above with a disability to create a figure that equated to the spending power of local authorities to meet all social care needs.

However, the charity has stressed in the report the data offers an insight into the funding local authorities could spend on each older person who needs adult social care – not necessarily the actual amount spent in reality.

In 2011, the Halton Borough Council’s spending power was calculated as £10,958.96 per head – which put the local authority as 68th in the charity’s rankings.

But by 2014, this figure had dropped to £10,599.25 per head – a reduction of 3.3% and a fall to 93rd.

Halton has been classed by the charity as an urban local authority.

A Halton Borough Council spokeswoman said: “Over the years, there have been further reductions in funding and austerity continues to bite in Halton and elsewhere.

“Nevertheless, working with partners, we have continued to provide high standards of care, to modernise services and, where the private sector has failed, we have invested in the purchase of care homes to safeguard the residents and their families.”

The Salvation Army is asking the Government to prioritise properly funding adult social care and funding most of it centrally in a bid to ensure that money is distributed more fairly and all older people get the help they need.

Lieutenant- Colonel Dean Pallant of The Salvation Army said: “Rural local authorities have been set up to fail with this flawed formula and it urgently needs revision.

“People are living longer and the population is ageing, the adult social care bill is rising but the local authority funding streams aren’t enough to cover the demand, especially in areas where there are not many businesses or people to tax.

“The Government must prioritise its spending and properly fund adult social care. For years the rhetoric has been that councils can raise sufficient funds through local taxation to pay for older peoples’ care.

“This Salvation Army analysis proves that local authorities are being asked to achieve the impossible. Put simply; you can’t squeeze local businesses for more tax if your local businesses are struggling.

“The Salvation Army’s residential care homes see the impact of this funding flaw every day.

“We are caring for people who don’t have the savings to pay for their own care and stepping in where the council can’t pay for the care.”