National Audit Office urges Government to 'be better informed' on local authority budgets

A new National Audit Office (NAO) report has furthered concerns over the ability of local authorities to meet their social care funding goals, finding that one quarter of councils have been forced to make unplanned amendments in order to deliver their 2013-14 budgets, while over half of councils are judged as being ill-placed to achieve their medium-term financial plans.

Between 2010-11 and 2014-15, funding streams from central government to local authorities have reduced by 28 per cent, with further cuts in 2015-16 expected to increase this reduction to 37 per cent overall, although these figures do not include the public health grant or Better Care Fund.

“Local authorities have worked hard to manage reductions in government funding at a time of austerity,” says head of NAO, Amyas Morse. “At the same time, there is evidence of some service reductions. The Department really needs to be better informed about the situation on the ground among local authorities across England, in a much more active way, in order to head off serious problems before they happen. It should look for evidence of financial stress in local authorities to assure itself that they are able to deliver the services for which they are responsible. It should be clear about the knock-on effect of the various funding decisions taken by departments in Whitehall.”

UKHCA senior campaigns officer Duncan White, responded to the report’s findings: “Local authorities have undertaken extensive reductions in expenditure, with service-users and homecare services being a very visible casualty. Further reductions in funding are planned for the next two to four financial years, with the 2015 General Election the deciding factor in which way economic policy will evolve. But whatever the hue of the next government, the fundamental issue of further constraints on public spending will not change, with local authorities, service-users and homecare providers again in the frontline.”