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LGA responds to King's Fund Report on social care

Chairman of the Local Government Association's Community Wellbeing Board, Cllr Izzi Seccombe, responds to a report by the King's Fund and Nuffield Trust on cuts to social care.

"This report confirms what councils have been saying all along about the urgent need for government to properly fund adult social care, and we very much support calls for a fresh debate around how best to support future social care.

"Social care has reached crisis point, with councils', providers' and carers' ability to support our loved ones and ensure they live the dignified and independent life they deserve severely undermined by funding pressures.

"The need to tackle this was acknowledged by the Government in its decision to allow councils to raise council tax by 2 per cent to pay for adult social care in 2016/17, and provide up to an additional £1.5 billion via the Better Care Fund by 2019/20.

"However, the extra income this year will not bring in enough money to plug growing funding gaps and prevent the need for further cutbacks to social care services. Councils will continue to do all they can to maintain the services that older and vulnerable people rely on but there is little scope left for further efficiencies to be made.

"The growing demand of an ageing population, as well as the increasing costs following the introduction of the National Living Wage, are squeezing care home and domiciliary care providers to the point of collapse.

"As a starting point, government should bring forward the £700 million Better Care Fund money earmarked for the end of the decade to 2016/17 to protect vital social care services essential to easing the pressure on care providers and on the NHS."

View related report by the Kings Fund: Older people are paying the price for cuts to social care

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