Cllr Izzi Seccombe, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, responds to latest delayed transfers of care figures published today by NHS England.
“The further reduction in delays due to social care is testament to the fantastic work by councils which have now reduced this figure by 39 per cent since July 2017.
“To help reduce pressures on the NHS, adult social care needs to be put on an equal footing with the health service and councils need urgent funding to invest in effective prevention work to reduce the need for people to be admitted to hospital in the first place.
“Our recent surveys show that 96 per cent of councils and lead members believe there is a major funding problem with adult social care and that 87 per cent of the public support more funding to plug the significant funding gap in the sector.
“Reductions to public health budgets also need to be reversed to enable councils to continue to help people to live independently and well, which will help ease demands on the NHS and social care and save money for the public purse.”
Notes to editor
- The latest delayed transfers of care figures for May 2018 are available here.
- Between April and May delayed transfers of care due to social care have fallen by 9 per cent (132 beds per day), while delays due to the NHS have fallen by 5.8 per cent (175 beds per day).
- Since July 2017, delays due to social care have fallen by about 39 per cent, while delays due to the NHS have fallen by 13 per cent.
- There is a £3.5 billion funding gap facing adult social care by 2025.
- Councils’ public health grants have been reduced by £600 million between 2015/16 and 2019/20.
- Following the delay in the Government’s green paper until the autumn, the LGA will be publishing its own green paper on adult social care this summer.