Saga chief calls for social care funding to be ring-fenced

Saga’s chief has called for social care funding to be ring-fenced and said it is ‘dangerous’ for the government to deny there is a care crisis.

At a recent Health Select Committee hearing, care minister, Paul Burstow, denied there is any shortfall in care funding, insisting that by 2014/15, an extra £7.2bn will have been allocated to councils for social care.

In addition, the Minister claimed that ‘efficiency gains’ of 3.5 per cent a year will, combined with the extra spending, mean there is enough money to cope with rising demands for care. However the cash that is being given to local authorities has not been ring-fenced and some councils have admitted they have been using it for other purposes.

The Alzheimer’s Society told the committee that a number of Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) do not know where the dementia strategy funds were spent and The Princess Royal Trust for Carers said the £400m earmarked for carers’ breaks has not gone to the right place. At the Health Select Committee hearing, Mr Burstow said: ‘There need not be a gap in funding if local authorities take the sorts of efficiency steps that the LGA (Local Government Association) themselves have accepted are possible.’

The Liberal Democrat minister reckoned the coalition had made £7.2bn ‘available’ to councils for the next five years but insisted that if they implemented efficiency savings of just three per cent a year, there would be no need to cut any services to the elderly.

Dr Ros Altmann, director general of over-50s organisation Saga, said: ‘This astonishing statement flies in the face of all the evidence. First of all, the extra £2bn a year that is supposed to be given to local authorities is not ring-fenced for care, so councils are not spending it on care. Indeed, the report states that, in the past year, care spending has actually fallen by around £1bn, despite rising demand.'

'In addition, the Committee says it is impossible to rely on achieving the assumed 3.5 per cent efficiency savings, and if they do not happen the care system will remain inadequate.’

She was also disparaging about government talk of integrating the existing fragmented health and social care services that was in the Health Select Committee report and added: ‘For 40 years, governments have talked about ‘integration’, while the system has failed to deliver.'

'Government has maintained separate 'silos' for health (NHS), social care (local authorities) and housing (welfare) while trying to 'build bridges' between each one to ensure they are linked up. This approach has failed time and again, yet the Government still seems to want to continue with this approach. Even worse, the current Health and Social Care Bill may even remove the Care Trusts that have been so successful in delivering integration.'

Her comments were echoed by Richard Humphries, senior fellow at The King’s Fund who said: ‘Successive governments have talked about the need to integrate health and social care but have failed to make it happen. The time for warm words and good intentions has passed – delivering integrated care must assume the same priority over the next decade as reducing waiting times was given over the last.'

The report, which followed the Committee’s enquiry into Social Care, also highlighted the need to face the issue of the funding gap between the number of people who need care and the amount of money currently in the system and urged the government to accept the initial recommendations of the Dilnot Commission to cap lifetime care expense contributions for individuals at £35,000.

Director general of Saga, Dr Ros Altmann, is pictured above