The next government has been urged to make social care a priority after years of reform being “consistently dodged or delayed”, a think-tank has said.
In its annual report, The King’s Fund said that financial eligibility for care has continued to tighten, with the threshold for help remaining unchanged for more than a decade. Local authorities are also facing rising costs with the bill for purchasing care continuing to rise faster than inflation, according to the report, which the LGA supports.
Cllr Kaya Comer-Schwartz, Vice-Chair of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, said: “We need to see further urgent investment in adult social care and a boost to the workforce, to ensure the best possible care for those that draw on it.”
Meanwhile, a new report from the Commons’ Public Accounts Committee has warned that the Department of Health and Social Care is failing to provide the leadership required to deliver a social care sector sufficient to meet the country’s future needs.
Initiatives to support the workforce have so far only been short-term, while a long-term and comprehensive workforce plan is lacking, they said.
The report stated that MPs “remain unconvinced” about whether the department knows if it is achieving value for money from additional funding going to adult social care.
Cllr Comer-Schwartz said: “Any reforms need to invest in prevention and recovery in both health and social care in order to be successful. It is crucial that the impacts of any social care reforms on councils are thoroughly assessed and are manageable, costed and centred on people who draw on care.”