Elderly and disabled's care packages at risk, if Chancellor fails to give councils £2.4bn

Councils across the country have warned they will be forced to begin decommissioning frontline services and care packages for elderly and disabled people this Autumn unless the government gives £2.4 billion for care services next year.

County council leaders are calling on Chancellor Sajid Javid to use the one-year 'Spending Round', on 4 September, to confirm all current funding for social care will continue in 2020/21.

Government grant funding currently at risk includes the Improved Better Care Fund, which is coming to the end of its three-year cycle in 2020.

It also includes the Social Care Grant (worth £316m) for councils and a Winter Pressures Grant (£239m), both of which were one-year grants for 2019/20, announced at last October’s Budget.

Without the money, councils will begin decommissioning care packages aimed at reducing delayed discharges from hospital. It will make more cuts to core care services and preventative measures that help get people out of hospital quicker.

More social care cuts will see elderly and disabled suffer

Cllr David Williams, chairman-elect of the County Councils Network (CCN), and leader of Hertfordshire County Council said: “It would be inconceivable that the temporary grants – particularly the Better Care Fund - that have allowed us to prop up care services and address pressures on the NHS over the past few years, will not continue.

"But we are still in the dark over whether this lifeline for care services will continue.

“With budget planning for 2020/21 underway, we will reluctantly have to seek to decommission services that are directly funded by these grants in the coming months, in order to present a balanced budget next year – unless this funding is continued."

Councils also want the Chancellor to fully fund next year’s estimated £652m increase in the costs of delivering care due to inflationary pressures and rising demand.

Without more money, Cllr Williams warns that “once again council taxpayers will be asked to foot the bill, while frontline services will inevitably be reduced.”

The CCN represents all 26 county councils and 10 county unitary authorities and 47 per cent of the country’s population. It issued its warning with the publication of new analysis in its report ‘Adult social care funding and the Spending Review’.