On the day parliament is dissolved, the survey by ComRes found that 75% of the 150 outgoing members wanted the protection that has been given to NHS spending since 2010 to be extended to social care.
In addition, a separate ComRes survey of likely future MPs – made up of incumbent MPs and prospective parliamentary candidates likely to win their seats – showed that 76% backed the ringfencing of funds.
LGA chair David Sparks said these figures suggested that support for the protection would continue into the next parliament. The umbrella organisation of councils has warned that town halls face a £4.3bn adult social care funding gap by the end of the decade if there is not protection of funding.
‘Councils, care workers, health professionals and now even MPs agree that social care funding must be protected in the same way as the NHS. There can be no excuse for the next government to ignore this,’ he added.
‘Councils have protected our most vulnerable people as far as possible, often at the expense of other services, and we will continue to prioritise those most in need. However, the combined pressures of insufficient funding, growing demand, escalating costs and a 40% cut to local government funding across this Parliament mean that despite councils’ best efforts they are having to make tough decisions about the care services they can provide.’
