By Richard Johnstone | 30 June 2014
Councils in England face a £5.8bn funding gap over the next two years, and spending on adult social will tip councils into financial crisis if reforms are not successful, the Local Government Association has warned.
The umbrella group’s Future funding outlook 2014 said the gap in funding was growing at an average of £2.1bn a year due to a combination of funding cuts and spending pressures such as social care demand, and could top £12bm by 2020.
The next two years will be crucial for town hall finances, the LGA stated, with the government’s Better Care Fund – intended to merge council and NHS funding to relive pressure on authority finances – set to launch in2015/16.
According to the LGA, the gap between demand and funding for social care alone is already projected to stand at £1.9bn in 2015/16.
Chair Sir Merrick Cockell said this demonstrated the ‘urgent need’ for the Better Care Fund to succeed in radically improving the way public money is spent, as failure to quickly overhaul services would tip councils and the NHS into financial crisis.
‘Council finances are on a knife-edge and the old way of doing things – including the way we care for our elderly population – just won’t work anymore,’ he said.
‘Next year will be a make or break moment for adult social care, for local services provided by councils and for the NHS. The introduction of the Better Care Fund next year is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to both improve the quality of life for people in their older years and steer England’s social care system away from the road to financial ruin. The stakes have never been higher.’
A joined-up approach between councils and the health service will provide better support for less money, by cutting out the cost of failure, Cockell said, but it will need a ‘determined effort’ to implement reform.
‘Failure to get this right would be catastrophic for an entire generation who rely upon care and the NHS. It will also deprive millions of the popular local services like buses, parks, libraries and leisure centres that help improve quality of life and bind communities together.’
