4 January 2011
Councils are to be allocated an extra £162m in the current financial year to spend on social care, as a result of cost-cutting at the Department of Health.
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said today that the cash was in addition to £70m already allocated to ‘re-ablement services’ for 2010/11, to support older people in their homes after a stay in hospital.
The money is to be given to primary care trusts to hand directly to councils. The DoH expects councils and PCTs to then agree how best to spend the money locally.
Lansley said the money had been saved in the DoH by restricting spending on consultancy, IT, administration and advertising.
He added that the money, which will have to be spent by the end of the current financial year, would help local services cope with the pressures of the winter.
Lansley said: ‘It’s really important, particularly at this time of year, that we help people to leave hospital as quickly as they can, when they are ready.
‘The latest figures show that 2,575 [hospital] beds are unavailable due to delayed transfers of care.’
Andrew Cozens, the Local Government Association’s lead for adult social care, welcomed the £162m, which he confirmed was new money. He said it would hasten increased collaboration between health services and local authorities, as set out in last October’s Comprehensive Spending Review.
Cozens told Public Finance that the cash would enable councils to begin work early on boosting re-ablement services in their areas.
For 2011/12, a further £800m of NHS money has already been set aside for spending on social care services.
‘The key issue for us now is that there is rapid and easy agreement between councils and PCTs on how to spend this,’ Cozens added.
