WIREDGOV

Cllr Ian Hudspeth, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, responded to the NHS Long Term Plan

“We are pleased the NHS Long Term Plan sets out an ambition to build a new service model for the 21st century with health bodies working in partnership with local government.

“The plan has a much needed focus on prevention, early support and reducing health inequalities as well as promising investment in primary, community and mental health services. The focus on giving children the best start and on caring for older people in their own homes is right and should complement social care and wider services provided through councils and others.

“However the ambition set out can only be fully realised if adult social care and public health services in councils are also properly funded.

“We feel this is a missed opportunity for the Government to also launch its long-awaited adult social care green paper and proposals for the sustainable funding of these services.

“To help the NHS make its extra funding go further and alleviate the pressures on the health service, it is essential that the Government plugs the £3.6 billion funding gap facing adult social care by 2025 and reverses the £600 million in reductions to councils’ public health grants.

"The current system of social care is unsustainable and will buckle under the weight of demand unless the Government urgently invests in these essential services, which protect health, prevent sickness and are the surest way to reduce hospital admissions.”