Health leaders warn over social care spending

03 September 2019 Seamus Ward

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As he entered Downing Street, Mr Johnson said he had a clear plan to ‘fix the crisis in social care once and for all’. More than 150,000 people signed a petition asking the government to increase social care funding, suggesting a minimum increase of 3.9% a year. The petition called for access for everyone to the care they need. It said social care cuts had left 1.4 million people without access to the care they required.

The petition also called for a long-term plan for social care that includes a workforce strategy and support for a diverse and stable market of providers.

Petition organiser the NHS Confederation believes it is the largest of its kind. Separately, it has put together an alliance of 50 NHS leaders – Health for Care – to write to Mr Johnson.

Health for Care said cuts were having a knock-on effect on the NHS and this placed delivery of the NHS long-term plan in jeopardy. The Local Government Association said councils overspent on children’s social care budgets by £770m in 2018/19 due to demand pressures and lack of funding.

The letter called for immediate funding increases in the upcoming one-year spending round. It also urged the prime minister to hold cross-party talks to deliver a more sustainable social care system that is backed by a long-term financial settlement. The new system should be reformed to widen eligibility criteria.

Niall DicksonConfederation chief executive Niall Dickson (pictured) said: ‘The level of distress being experienced by hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people and their carers is now much greater and on a wider scale than at any time in living memory. This is a crisis and it has to be urgently addressed.

‘We welcome the prime minister’s early commitment to find a solution. As our petition shows, the public recognise the human cost of inaction and they want this resolved. Successive governments have failed to address this issue – the new government has a chance to put this right.’