WIREDGOV

Cllr Izzi Seccombe, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, responded to a study published in BMJ Open linking recent health and social care funding cuts to mortality rates

“We would urge government to review the evidence behind this analysis. If correct, it would clearly reinforce the desperate and urgent need to properly fund social care.

“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 and healthy lives, live in their own community and stay out of hospital for longer.

“As a minimum in next week’s Budget, the Chancellor should set out in further detail the Government’s intention to bring forward proposals for adult social care mentioned in the Queen’s Speech and how it proposes to fill the £2.3 billion annual funding gap that social care will face by 2020.

“It must also reverse the £530 million cuts to councils’ public health budgets, which funds vital prevention work that keeps people well and out of hospital.

“This is essential if we are to ensure people can live independent, fulfilling lives, as well as alleviating the pressures on the NHS.”

Effects of health and social care spending constraints on mortality in England: a time trend analysis