WIREDGOV

Cllr Izzi Seccombe, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, responds to a report published today by the Health Foundation, on an increase in emergency hospital admissions.

“To help reduce pressures on the NHS, adult social care needs to be given parity with the health service and councils need urgent funding to invest in effective prevention work to reduce the need for people to be admitted to hospital in the first place.

“The funding gap facing adult social care is set to exceed £2 billion by 2020. The majority of this pressure is now with an estimated £1.3 billion of that shortfall needed to stabilise the care market. 

“The Government needs to address these challenges in its Green Paper and deliver a future-proof solution to the long-term sustainability of the sector so personal, reliable and high quality care can be provided to the rising number of people who need and deserve it.

“Essential prevention work and early intervention services are also being hampered by a £600 million reduction in councils’ public health budgets by central government between 2015/16 and 2019/20.

“The LGA is calling for reductions in public health grants to be reversed by the Government, which will help to further reduce NHS pressures and costs increasing.”

Download the report