THURROCK Council’s leading councillor with responsibilities for health and social care is backing calls for urgent talks with the government.
The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services along with the NHS Confederation, the care Provider Alliance, and the Care and Support Alliance, have issued a joint statement calling “for `urgent’ talks with Treasury and other Whitehall Departments in the face of a mounting crisis in the care of older and disabled people”.
Cllr Barbara Rice, Thurrock’s cabinet member for adult social care and health, said: “To be honest, I’m amazed it has taken this long.
“Adult social care departments across the country are being squeezed too hard. Some of the most vulnerable people in our society and our neighbourhoods will suffer.
“In many ways it is amazing nothing has happened already, but what really gets me is that the government has announced this care tax – two per cent on council tax – with no details, but that’s not enough to cover this year’s cuts let along previous cuts and the cuts to come.
“It is also, unfortunately, a clever way for the government to shift the blame. By saying they’re telling councils to raise the money from council tax, it is the council’s bill which lands on doormats, and obviously it is then the council’s fault.”
In a letter to Chancellor, George Osborne; Jeremy Hunt from the Department of Health; and Greg Clark of the Department of Communities and Local Government, the four organisations say the recent Spending Review settlement “is not sufficient to resolve the care funding crisis”.
The letter states: “Ultimately the package put forward for social care will not enable us to fill the current gap in funding, cover additional costs associated with the introduction of the National Living Wage, nor fully meet future growth in demand due to our ageing population.”
It also warns some of the problems being faced are historic with Better Care Funding not reaching significant levels until towards 2020 which has “implications in terms of the vital support needed by older and disabled people and their carers”.
Cllr Rice said: “There are increasing pressures and issues being faced by adult social care, and treating adult social care and the NHS separately, as well as differently, does not solve those problems.
“I am delighted these organisations have taken up the campaign … maybe this government will listen to them; they’re certainly not listening to us.”
