WIREDGOV

Chairman of the Local Government Association's Community Wellbeing Board, Cllr Izzi Seccombe, responds to new analysis by the Health Foundation of the social care funding pressures on Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs).

"With social care on the brink of collapse, we fully support the findings of the Health Foundation and the call for government to announce new, long-term sustainable funding in next week's Budget.

"Councils see STPs as an important vehicle in redesigning local care and health services to improve health and wellbeing, and the quality of care.

"But we will be unable to achieve this without genuinely new money for social care. It is only by properly investing in social care that we can alleviate the pressures on the NHS.

"Council tax raising powers announced by government will not bring in enough money to fully protect the services which care for elderly and vulnerable people today and in the future. The social care funding crisis needs a long-term, sustainable solution, not short-term fixes that merely paper over the cracks in the system.

"Genuinely new government money is now the only way to protect the services caring for elderly and disabled people and ensure they can enjoy dignified, healthy and independent lives in their own community, while reducing pressures on hospitals."

View report: The social care funding gap: implications for local health care reform