Recruitment and retention issues have led to a 3% reduction in the social care workforce – the first decline in the sector since 2012, experts have said.
New prime minister Liz Truss has been urged by council leaders to stand by her pledge to allocate more funding to social care as inflation bears down on their authorities’ budgets.
Local authorities need additional central government funding to cover the cost of inflation and care needs to save the sector from “the brink of collapse”, a parliamentary committee has warned.
Sheffield City Council’s finance director has warned the authority might struggle to deliver this year’s budget because the £25m of reserves it set aside to meet overspends has been “essentially...
Councils will not be able to fix recruitment and retention issues afflicting social care services if they do not have enough money to ensure staff are paid properly, MPs have warned.
The cost-of-living crisis is set to exacerbate existing funding constraints for councils and the social care market, and more central government funding will be necessary to avoid a winter crisis,...
English councils may need to spend much more than the government has forecast when implementing reforms aimed at reducing the long-term cost of social care.
The funding committed to social care bodies through Health and Social Care Levy, which went live today, is not enough to meet cost pressures and sector reforms, according to an expert.
Local authorities in England will need to raise council tax by 10% next year, just to enable adult social care services to stand still, according to a charity.
The government is assessing additional grants or further council tax flexibilities to help fund the burgeoning social care deficit, according to a report in the national press.
Social care pressures saw some local authorities take “unorthodox measures” to balance their books, leading to a spike in upheld complaints last year, according to the sector's ombudsman.
Sheffield City Council expects social care pressures to make up more than 70% of a £43m funding gap this year, with further government support needed to ensure medium-term viability.
Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has warned that the social care sector will not get as much money as it needs under the new health and social care levy.
The government’s reported proposal to increase national insurance rates to pay for the long-awaited social care reform has been labelled “regressive” and a “rubbish idea” by experts.
Changes proposed under the government’s Health and Social Care White Paper could be “destabilised” without fully funded reforms of the social care sector, MPs have warned.
The brief mention of social care in the Queen’s Speech represents a “missed opportunity” to spur desperately needed reform, many in the sector have warned.