By Lucy Caulkett-
Adult and children social services face a funding gap of £3.2bn by 2020, according to local government leaders
A report by the Local Government Association found that children’s services will experience a £1.9bn gap in funding from 2016-17 to 2019-20, with adult social care hit by a £1.25bn shortfall over this same period. The startling figures were part of the LGA’s submission to the Treasury ahead of the chancellor’s Autumn Statement next month.
The LGA claim that councils are facing rising demand without additional government funding to meet those demands, and pointed to the number of child protection plans having risen by 60% since 2008.
“It is wrong to allow such an unsustainable pressure to build up on a service that protects our most vulnerable children,” the LGA said. The demands facing social services have always been enormous, calling for special skill and plenty of funding. Shortfalls in funding are always disastrous for any project. £700m is a lot of money, and not the sort of figure that can lie low when needed for important developments. The Brexit process is perhaps not the best time to be expected huge money to be forked out, however, the government will be expected to step up if this is what is needed to financing this delicate area of work.
Child services funding
Local authority children’s services did not receive any additional funding in the 2015 spending review. Although the Treasury provided new tax raising powers, to boost adult social care funding, and also promised to invest an additional £1.5bn in these services through the Better Care Fund by 2019-20, but no additional funding. Less than 10% of the promised investment (£105m ) is to become available next year, £825m in 2018-19, and the full £1.5bn shortfall is expected in the 2019-20 period. However, in light of several broken promises on finding issues, it remains very doubtful whether even the figure promised for the years ahead will be met.
The LGA have stated that a £1.3bn funding gap will still exist by 2019-20 even if the reduced promised money is released.
“If this gap is not plugged we are likely to see more care providers leaving the market, cuts to care services, and risk the safety and quality of care,” the LGA said.
The LGA have also warned that the foundations of the adult social care system were “extremely unstable”, and highlighted a recent survey of social services directors showing that half of local authorities in England had seen a home care or residential care provider exit the market in the first half of 2016.
PROMISED
Calling on the government to bring forward £700m of the promised additional Better Care Fund investment, the LGA said the funding was “urgently needed” to tackle immediate challenges facing services. The association had previously called for this £700m to be made available in the current financial year. This request seems reasonable, the only problem being if this figure is unaffordable by the government. If that is the case, urgent communication alongside a workable plan to resolve the issue is vital. Social services is a demanding profession with many financial needs necessary to implement the conditions for progress on different fronts in relation to those in desperate need of the services, and those hard working social workers who strive to deliver them.
Two ways have been suggested by the government to manage this overwhelming and troublesome situation. One of them is to set the maximum wage for over 25’s at £7.20, up 70 pence from the current £6.70, from next year April. Local authorities have figured out that even if they were to apply the council tax precept, by increasing the standard council tax for residents, it would not be enough, and councils will be offering too little back.
Local Government Authorities are calling on ministers to look to reform business rate use and council tax setting powers to allow councils to take “financial decisions which are right for their local area”. Good as the idea sounds, it may also mean that local authorities end up charging too highly in their quest to make up numbers, which they seem to be suggesting will still be far from their reach.