Council deputy leader calls on government to alleviate ‘pressure’ on adult social care

Concerns: Cllr Janet Burgess. Photograph: Islington Council

The Deputy Leader of Islington Council has spoken out about the ‘pressure’ put on the town hall’s adult social care budget.

The comments from Cllr Janet Burgess, Islington Council’s executive member for health and wellbeing, came in the wake of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Care (ADASS) budget survey.

The survey describes an approaching crisis in adult social care provision, warning that English councils may have to make  social care cuts of £700m in 2018/19.

Cllr Burgess said: “Islington, like all local authorities, faces huge pressure on adult social care budgets.

“We strongly support calls for the Government to establish a proper, national, workable, costed way of paying for the care people need. 

 “Islington strongly supports good adult social care and continues to pay for care for people with less severe needs, at a time when many other local authorities have ended this because of the cost pressures.”

A council spokesperson confirmed that approximately 32p in the pound (ie 32 per cent of Islington’s net budget requirement) is spent on adult social care.

The ADASS budget survey is an analysis of the current state of adult social care finances in England, drawing on the experiences of leaders in the field.

It draws attention to an increasingly challenging environment of reductions in local government funding, complicated by fragile provider and labour markets as well as a National Health Service struggling to meet demand.

Glen Garrod, ADASS president, says in the report: “As the scale of continuing cuts demonstrate, together with the fragile state of the care market, there is not yet a sustainable, long-term solution to the funding of adult social care.

“There is a particular issue about the next financial year when the increase in the resources is much smaller than in either of the previous two years.

“There is a real danger that some councils could be unable to meet statutory duties before any solution from the Government’s reviews can be put in place.”