Fear of intense pressure on adult care services

T he County Council has warned that the Chancellor’s failure to announce additional funding for adult social care in his autumn statement will place intense pressure on services.

For this reason the County Council must consider another two per cent social care precept levy next year, alongside a general council tax rise of 1.99 per cent.

The Government enabled councils to levy a council tax precept for the first time this year. The Council now believes it must continue this next year just to meet the cost of the National Living Wage, which the Chancellor raised in his Autumn statement.

The County Council had hoped that the Chancellor would announce extra Government funding for social care in support of an already stretched but vital service for the county’s most vulnerable residents.

North Yorkshire has been calling on the Government over the last year to provide a more sustainable settlement for adult social care and for a better deal for rural and coastal communities that tend to have older populations and proportionately higher costs.

In 2016-17 alone North Yorkshire needs to provide for £8m of additional costs in the budget, far in excess of the amount raised through the social care precept.

North Yorkshire has protected adult social care spending to a greater extent than many other councils and now spends 42 per cent of its budget

on the social care of older people and vulnerable adults.

Currently there are 140,000 people in North Yorkshire (out of a 500,000 population) aged over 65, of which 13.5 per cent (19,000) are aged over 85 – ahead of the national average and projected to increase dramatically in future years.

County Councillor Carl Les, the county Council’s Leader, said: “The apparent lack of extra money for social care funding in the Autumn statement means services will be even more stretched. Recent care market studies show that

North Yorkshire is already at a place where the rest of the country will be in 2020, with demand for services and demographic trends five years ahead of the national average.

“In a large rural county like ours the cost of delivering services to sparse populations is also significantly higher than for councils with compact, urban populations. I am calling on the Government to address this issue in the settlement in December when we find out how much money will come to local councils.”

Although the Chancellor did announce additional funding for housing, highways and digital infrastructure, including £170m for flood defences, it is by no means clear how much of this extra cash will find its way into North Yorkshire. However, Cllr Les applauds the Government for funding improvements to the A66. He said: “I very much welcome the announcement of the final safety improvements to the A66. This has been a long running campaign and one of my priorities since becoming leader.’’

Cllr Les said the Council would continue to press ahead with its transformation agenda, working with communities and giving leadership to provide services where and in a way that people need them most. He applauded volunteer groups who were coming forward “to help continue running services where we cannot afford to run them any more”.

Councillors will make decisions on council tax rises for 2017/18 in February.