Adult social care must be ‘modernised’ to help London councils on the brink of bankruptcy, a health minister has told the Standard. Care minister Stephen Kinnock has said “we need to take a fundamental look” at how care homes, mental health support and other similar services are funded as boroughs face mounting costs to take care of some of their most vulnerable residents.
It comes as more and more boroughs are warning they will face bankruptcy without a huge injection of cash and long-term change in the way they are funded. Mr Kinnock told the Standard: “In the past, every attempt to reform funding for adult social care has been torpedoed because it's been weaponised by political parties, and the Labour Party is just as guilty as the Conservative Party and others at doing that.
“If we want a health and care system that works, adult social care has to be made to work. “It's got to be properly resourced, and it's got to be really modernised with big shifts from hospital to community, from sickness to prevention and from analogue to digital.”.
London Councils has said, collectively, the city’s town halls will face a £500million shortfall this year driven mainly by the skyrocketing cost of providing temporary housing for homeless families and soaring social care prices. Havering Council was forced to ask for extra Government funding after an increase in elderly and young residents put “unsustainable” pressure on adult and children’s social care budgets.
Elsewhere, Enfield Council also warned it was facing “rocketing demand for social care” while Barnet Council said the issue had stretched funds and depleted the town hall’s reserves. Seven councils in the capital this year applied for emergency Government money to balance the books, with social care costs often making it hard for boroughs to balance the books.
This is despite an additional £3,7 billion being made available across the country to try and ease the costs of social care across the country. The Government has vowed to tackle the issue by creating a National Care Service as part of a wider package of support for the sector, which includes more funding for elderly and disabled people to make home improvements and stay out of hospital.
Mr Kinnock added: “One of the fundamental problems in adult social care is there are 130,000 vacancies in the system. “We are going to have an unprecedented agreement around fair pay for care workers, and the wheels are in motion on that. He added: “We're going to be bringing forward a set of proposals for long-term reform of the system, creating a national care service, a new funding model and a way that ensures that adult social care isn't pushing local authorities, in some cases, to the brink of bankruptcy. it's a really serious situation that we're in.”.
Earlier this year ministers announced the first steps to creating a National Care Service, with an independent commission led by Baroness Louise Casey expected to begin in the spring. But social care organisations have called on the government to act “urgently” on plans for long-term funding and reform after it was revealed that proposals may not be delivered until 2028.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has previously warned that Britain’s ageing society could see the cost of care double in the next 20 years, meaning a long-term solution is needed. Speaking when the review was announced, Baroness Casey said: “Millions of older people, disabled people, their families and carers rely upon an effective adult social care system to live their lives to the full, with independence and dignity.
