The intervention by the County Councils Network, which represents 36 mainly Tory authorities, comes amid widespread local government concerns about the increasingly fragile state of social care. Healthcare costs have accelerated recently, fueled by unexpected wage and energy inflation. “We are facing the perfect storm of staff shortages, fewer care beds and higher costs – all of which will affect people waiting for care and discharge from hospital,” said Martin Tet, Tory leader of Buckinghamshire County Council. Although social care budgets have been under pressure for years, in recent months alone they have added £1.4bn to the already large funding shortfall facing English councils, according to new analysis carried out by the network, pushing many services into edge of sustainability. Crisis warnings from members of her own party will pile pressure on Prime Minister Liz Truss, who insisted over the summer that she wanted to back social care. There is speculation he will announce measures on Thursday to channel funds originally earmarked for the NHS to local government. “My first priority in social care is to make sure we get the money into social care this winter because at the moment we have too many people having to stay in hospital because of problems in the social care system,” he said. But there is concern in local government about the extent to which any measures announced this week will address serious long-term funding problems in social care. The network estimates that without intervention, councils will face a care funding shortfall of £3.7bn over the next 18 months. Truss’ predecessor, Boris Johnson, introduced a care cap to meet a manifesto pledge that pensioners would not have to sell homes to fund large old-age care costs. The Truss has pledged to keep the cap in place while scrapping the rise in national insurance meant to pay for it. Some local authorities fear that if funding levels do not improve, they will not be able to meet their legal obligation to provide care for local residents. Others report that care providers are returning contracts because rising costs and staff shortages mean they are no longer able to provide services. Councils are fighting a losing battle for staff with local labor market rivals such as supermarkets Sainsbury’s and Lidl, which have managed to offer pay rises and staff perks such as free food. There are currently around 165,000 social care vacancies in England. “We are definitely in a state of crisis,” James McInnes, cabinet member for adult social care at Tory-run Devon County Council, told the Guardian. “It’s very difficult because you can stock supermarket shelves and earn more money than you can in social care. We need to see the national government recognize this.” The scale of contracting in Devon has reached the point where the council has set up a task force to find alternative placements for care clients whose providers are moving away. “We’ve never seen anything like it in the market,” McInnes said. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Cathie Williams, chief executive of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said: “Many people are missing out on vital care and support – we estimate that over half a million people are waiting for assessments, care or reviews. With more than 165,000 staff vacancies, this will only get worse. “ A government spokesman said: “The health and social care secretary is focused on delivering for patients and has set out her four priorities: A, B, C, D – reducing ambulance delays, eliminating Covid delays, improving care and increasing number of doctors and dentists. “We are investing £5.4 billion over the next three years to reform adult social care – to end the lottery of care costs and support the workforce. “This includes £3.6 billion to enable all local authorities to move towards paying providers a fair cost of care and a further £1.7 billion to start major improvements to adult social care in England – beyond from record annual funding to help councils meet increasing demands and cost pressures.’
