By Richard Johnstone | 19 September 2014
Health minister Dan Poulter has insisted implementation of a host of reforms to social care will not place undue pressure on local authority budgets at a time of funding constraints in town halls.
Speaking to Public Finance, Poulter said the Care Act – which will introduce increased personalisation of care and a national eligibility threshold based on ‘substantial’ need from next April – represented an opportunity for local government.
Concerns had been raised by the Local Government Association that councils have not been given the resources needed to implement these changes. An LGA survey in August found 134 of 152 areas with social care responsibilities felt a lack of funding could jeopardise the reforms.
Asked by PF if he thought there was enough funding in the system to meet the cost of the changes, Poulter said: ‘I do. The Care Act is a tremendous opportunity for local authorities to make long-term financial efficiencies both through the delivery of more joined-up care for people with long-term conditions like diabetes, dementia and heart disease and people with long-term disabilities.’
In addition, the reforms create the potential to improve the financial outlook of councils by reducing the repetition of work across the NHS and social care, he added.
‘One of the main areas where we will strip out cost is reducing the duplication that sometimes gets in the way of delivering good patient care and costs those organisations money.
‘Longer term, there are tremendous efficiencies that can be made, which will benefit local government from a financial point of view and also from the point of view of improving patient care.’
