Councils reducing budgets for adult social care by £1bn – warning from ADASS

There is a crucial need for a sustainable solution to issues concerning the funding of social care for individuals in the greatest need, according to directors of adult social services. Their warning follows a new survey of English local authority adult care budgets, conducted by ADASS, showing that councils intend to reduce spending on adult social care by £1 billion in the coming year.

According to ADASS president Peter Hay: "Andrew Dilnot has been commissioned by the Government to address these funding issues and his recommendations will need to be carefully considered in the light of the growing demographic pressures facing communities across the country. ADASS strongly feels that the current `pause' in considering the future of the Health and Social Care Bill should last long enough to enable Dilnot's findings to be carefully considered.

"Good integration of care is a major part of the Bill, yet this will be badly compromised if there is a failure to find a national solution to funding long term care.”

The ADASS survey was completed by 98% of councils in England and has produced new information on how councils have set their budgets for the year 2011-12. Adult social care is a major part of the overall budget for local authorities and represent on average one third of Councils' budgets.

The key findings from the ADASS survey are:

Councils are reducing their budgets for adult social care by £1bn.
Of the savings planned for 2011/12, councils report that they plan to achieve 69% of these savings through new ways of working and improved efficiency, 8% through additional income and 23% through service reductions.
The cost of meeting new demand for social care services – the so-called `demographic pressure' was identified as £425m. These costs arise not only due to the rising number of older people but also to very significant increases in the numbers of people with learning disabilities needing high levels of support. 41% of councils prioritised the need fully to meet this pressure.
79% of councils have frozen or increased fees to providers in the independent sector, who provide crucial residential and community services for individuals in need. The independent sector provides a large proportion of services, once provided directly by councils. Local authorities' commitment to maintaining fee levels so substantially reflects their determination to ensure that providers can protect the quality of the care they offer.

Mr Hay added: "Adult social care departmentsthroughout England have for some time now been concentrating their efforts on different ways of working. There are major change programmes underway to shift spending into preventative services and to help people to regain their independence as quickly as possible after an illness or hospital admission.

"Councils are also sharing with each other the innovative ideas they are each developing, to meet people's needs with reducing resources and in cost effective ways. Savings on this scale simply cannot be achieved through doing the same things more efficiently or by trimming management costs – wholesale change is required and this is what councils are doing.

"Councils will do everything they can to reduce the need to spend on long term care through advice, information, prevention and reablement and by ensuring that value for money is achieved. However, this year's savings targets in councils are just the beginning of a 3-4 year programme of reductions: demographic pressures will not abate and councils' ability to find alternatives to service reductions will inevitably reduce over time.

"ADASS will contribute to the work of the Dilnot Commission and continue to support its efforts to find the sustainable solution that is so desperately needed. As the social care system has been under increasing pressure for some years, the recommendations from the Commission will offer the best possible opportunity to meet the needs of the most vulnerable for the foreseeable future.”