Vulnerable to lose out as care funding held back - council chiefs

Frail and vulnerable people will go without the care they need, council chiefs are warning, after ministers in England set out funding plans for care.

A decision to hold back half of £500m promised to help plug staff shortages has been criticised by adult social care directors.

They said the government's commitment to supporting adults with disabilities and the elderly was in tatters.

It came after ministers unveiled £2bn of grants for the next two years.

A total of £600m has been held back by the Department of Health and Social Care, however.

Some £250m of it came from the £500m originally promised last year to support the workforce through measures such as extra training places.

About one in 10 posts are vacant with staffing shortages rising by more than 50% in the past year.

There are currently more than 500,000 people waiting for care.

Sarah McClinton, the president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said: "This plan leaves the government's vision in tatters. It ducks the hard decision and kicks the can down the road until after the next election.

"Adult social care is in crisis. Now's not the time to be holding funding back.

"Many more people won't get the quality care and support they need, forcing more family and friends to step in where they can, more people deteriorating and being admitted to hospital and further damage to the NHS and economy."

How many people work in adult social care in England?

• In 2022 there were 1.5 million people working in adult social care

• About 400,000 people left their jobs, which is more than a quarter of the workforce

• There were 165,000 vacancies, a 52% increase on the previous year and the highest on record

• Care workers were paid an average hourly rate of £9.66 in the independent sector and £11.03 in the public sector

Source: Skills for Care

The funding, which was first announced last year, includes money for digital social care records, home adaptations and for councils to pay for care places - most care is provided by private and voluntary sector organisations.

But the £2bn of investment is just a fraction of what is normally spent on social care.

Grants from the Department of Health and Social Care represent just one funding stream councils rely on alongside others such as other central government grants, council tax and business rates.

In the past year more than £20bn was spent on care services.

Over the past 10 years councils have had to reduce the amount they spend on social care once inflation and the rising demand from the ageing population is taken into account, according to the Health Foundation, because of the squeeze on their overall funding.

Caroline Abrahams, co-chair of the Care and Support Alliance - which represents more than 70 charities - and charity director of Age UK, said the measures announced "aren't remotely enough to transform social care".

Millions of older and disabled people and their carers "needed something far bigger, bolder and more genuinely strategic to give them hope for the future", she said.

She continued: "With quite a chunk of the money originally promised for care now no longer available, our members are telling us this is just the latest in a long series of disappointments so far as recent government performance on social care is concerned."

The government said the £600m being held back would still be invested in social care, but it was now assessing where best to invest it in the system.

But health minister Helen Whately said the investment would make a difference.

"This package of reforms focuses on recognising care with the status it deserves, while also focusing on the better use of technology, the power of data and digital care records, and extra funding for councils - aiming to make a care system we can be proud of," she said.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has called a government announcement on social care funding "a betrayal".

He said that ministers had promised a lot but "delivered almost nothing".

"We need to get to grips with the vacancies in the workforce," he added.

Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said a "slashing" of social care funding was "a disaster" and that elderly people and people with disabilities were going to be the victims.