New social care funding – will it deal with key issues?
By Gemma Raw
The government is providing an additional £2 billion grant to local authorities in England for social care in 2023-24. However, concerns have been expressed that it’s not enough to address key challenges faced by those working in frontline social care jobs.
In his autumn statement, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt delayed the cap on care costs and associated charging reforms. His aim was to release cash to help local councils meet the current pressures on the social care system.
In December, the Department of Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) issued a policy statement containing details of the settlement, which includes around £2 billion in additional funding for social care. The government expects this new grant funding to enable local authorities to make tangible improvements to adult social care, in particular to address hospital discharge delays, social care waiting times, low fee rates and workforce pressures in the adult social care sector.
Calls for more cash
Representatives of senior social workers and local government have welcomed the additional funding, but also expressed concerns that it falls short of the amount required to make a real difference to social care services in the short term.
“It will help councils to reduce what could have been additional cuts to help deliver savings needed next year and in that context is welcome,” commented Cathie Williams, Chief Executive of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS). “But people should be under no illusion that it will address the vast amount of unmet, undermet and wrongly met needs or really establish social care as the essential service that we all depend on to live, to work and to care.”
This view was echoed by Local Government Association Chairman James Jamieson: “Underlying and existing pressures remain for councils and many still face significant challenges when setting their budgets and trying to protect services from cutbacks.”
What are the key issues?
Workforce pressures are still putting strain on the social care sector. According to a Skills for Care report published in October 2022, social care vacancies in England rose by 52% in the year to March 2022, reaching the highest rate on record. Waiting times for assessments by social workers and the number of delayed hospital discharges have also increased substantially, which could be due to a lack of available social care staff.
In addition, council fee rates have been a longstanding issue for care home and domiciliary care providers. The Homecare Association has predicted that the minimum price of an hour of home care would reach £25.95 in 2023-24, an increase of 12% on the current level. However, it seems that many councils and NHS commissioners are procuring services at rates below the true cost of delivering care.
The Liberal Democrats have called for higher pay for social care staff, pointing out that chronic staff shortages are leading to patients being left in hospital waiting for social care, contributing to record waiting times for A&E. “We need these social care workers,” said the party’s leader Ed Davey. “They've never been valued enough.”
