Social care faces £5bn funding gap

SOCIAL care services are facing collapse unless the Government provides councils with more cash, a group of MPS has warned.

The Commons housing, communities and local government committee found a lack of focus on the system, with a long-awaited investigation into social care still not published.

Local authorities across England warned that a two-year delay to the Social Care Green Paper, which was first scheduled for release in summer 2017, is playing havoc with preparations for how to look after older people. Councils will be forced to continue diverting funds from other areas unless a funding gap of £5billion is plugged, warned the all-party committee.

Boris Johnson pledged to “fix the social care crisis” in his first speech as Prime Minister on the steps of No10 last month, but there is no date for the release of his plan.

Clive Betts, Labour MP for Sheffield South East, who chairs the committee, said: “The battle to meet ever increasing demand for social care has left few further sources of revenue to divert to it and will now need a dedicated funding solution. The Government’s attention has been elsewhere for too long. It must now establish a system of funding that both addresses immediate need and supports local authorities in meeting challenges of the future.”

Councils do not know if additional cash streams, such as the Better Care Fund, will continue beyond March, making it difficult to set budgets.

Authorities in Cambridgeshire, Manchester and Leeds were among those to speak out over the repeated kicking into the long grass of the Government’s Social Care Green Paper. Norfolk county council told the committee: “The scale of the funding challenge is such that it cannot be addressed locally, and a national solution will be essential.”

Social care funding was a key issue in the 2017 general election, with the Conservatives pledging that the Government would recoup residential care costs from people’s estates valued above £100,000 after they died.

This was dubbed a “dementia tax” by Labour, and prompted Theresa May to perform an about-turn and promise the amount clawed back by the state would be capped. James Jamieson, chairman of the Local Government Association, said: “A third of councils fear they will run out of funding to provide their statutory services – such as adult social care, protecting children and preventing homelessness – within three years.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “We have given local authorities access to nearly £4billion more in dedicated funding for adult social care this year, and a further £410million is available for adults and children’s services.

“The Prime Minister has been clear he is committed to fixing the social care system and will outline proposals as soon as possible.”