04 August 2006
The Department of Health is considering compensating social services departments for the increased burdens created by cuts to NHS services, Public Finance has learnt.
A DoH spokeswoman confirmed the department was examining the evidence put forward by bodies such as the Local Government Association and British Association of Social Workers. She told PF: 'We have yet to make up our mind. We are considering the situation.'
This follows threats of litigation and publication last week of an LGA survey into the extent to which deficit-driven NHS cutbacks have affected local authorities.
Forty per cent of the authorities in areas hit by NHS deficits told the LGA they were experiencing covert attempts to redefine the boundaries between 'health' and 'social care' – in the shape of increased referrals to their services of patients who would have previously been cared for by the NHS. Thirty-six per cent said their local NHS had withdrawn funding from agreed or jointly funded services.
Councils said they had been forced to consider legal action, cut other council services and, in 7% of cases, raise the eligibility criteria for social care to those with only the most critical needs.
A recovery plan posted on the website of one of the worst-hit councils – Wiltshire – informs service users that NHS cuts require it to make £4m of savings this year.
'We cannot afford to continue in the way we have in the past,' it warns. 'We all need to recognise that there will never be enough money in the system to pay for all the services that people would like or may have received in the past.'
The scale of the problem is corroborated by official figures seen by PF which show that the numbers of elderly patients stuck in hospital awaiting transfer to social care continue to rise as care services struggle to cope with speeded up discharge rates.
PF first reported the issue in May, when it revealed that 10% of social services departments were experiencing two-year highs in delayed hospital discharge.
While some had brought their delays down by July, nearly all continued to experience delays far higher than the same month last year. Three local authorities – Hertfordshire, Lancashire and Wiltshire – have seen their delays increase further still.
BASW chair Ray Jones has estimated the size of the cuts and the required compensation at £200m – 20% of the gross deficit across the NHS.
PFaug2006
