Spending review falls short

Additional funding to local authorities to meet social care needs is welcome, but splitting £1bn between children’s and adult’s services is wholly inadequate when the adult social care sector confronts a £1.5bn funding gap itself and an expected £4.4bn gap by 2023/24.

Consultation on an adult social care precept falls far short of the greatly anticipated social care Green Paper – delayed by over 2 years – and much more is needed to secure the long term future of adult social care for working age disabled adults as well as older people.

We are concerned that pressing issues in social care are being overlooked as the government and parliament focuses on Brexit and, in the meantime, people who rely on services to lead independent lives are the ones losing out.