07 July 2006
Older people are being 'deprived of the care they deserve' because of the worsening £600m shortfall between what councils have available to fund care services and the minimum they need to spend, the Local Government Association has said.
Launching the organisation's campaign to secure increased funding for social care in next year's Comprehensive Spending Review, LGA social care spokesman David Rogers said: 'The situation is bordering on crisis point.
'For too long, successive governments have ducked finding a genuine, long-term solution to this critical issue. The result is a social care system creaking at the seams. The tragedy is that older people in England are being deprived of the care they deserve in later life. It is not fair.'
In their campaign report Fair care – distributed to MPs last week – the LGA claims that a combination of historical under-funding and the recent NHS deficit problems have 'forced [local authorities] to tighten their eligibility criteria for social services recipients year-on-year'.
The result is 'a gap between rhetoric and reality'. While the recent health white paper outlined the government's intention to deliver more preventative and 'early intervention' services, funding restraints mean only those with the most severe needs receive help.
Declaring his support for the campaign, Andrew Stunell, Liberal Democrat spokesman for Communities and Local Government said: 'I have case after case locally where overstretched social services just cannot provide the help needed. There is a black hole of £600m in social care budgets across the country this year.'
The LGA estimates that rising costs of contracts and demographic pressures mean an extra £663m would be needed this year just to deliver the current mode of social care for older people.
If the preventative and independent living agenda of the white paper were to be realised, even more would be needed.
The LGA urged the government to set a target and timetable for increasing the resources available to social care.
PFjul2006
