LGA RESPONDS TO ADASS REPORT ON CORONAVIRUS IMPACT ON SOCIAL CARE

Responding to the second part of the annual Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) budget survey, which focuses on the impact of coronavirus on social care budgets, Cllr Ian Hudspeth, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, said:

“Social care can play a hugely important role in helping people to live the life they want to lead. Care services were already under huge strain and facing severe cost pressures even before the pandemic, which as this report demonstrates have only been made worse.

“Our dedicated and committed care workforce have risen to the unprecedented challenges caused by coronavirus, with their contribution rightly receiving the widespread recognition it deserves. But we need both an immediate and long-term funding settlement to get through the next few months and years.

“Councils are doing all they can to support social care providers in their areas, but the fragility of our care provider market, exacerbated by coronavirus pressures, is a serious concern and this needs to be addressed as part of fundamental future reforms of the system. Our own commissioned research with ADASS suggests that providers face extra costs of £6.6 billion by the end of September this year as a result of the coronavirus emergency.

“We have been calling for a sustainable funding settlement for adult social care since long before the current crisis, and look forward to when the cross-party talks on the future of social care and how we pay for it can begin. This must also include critical decisions on the workforce such as pay, recruitment and career development.

“In the meantime we are working closely with the National COVID-19 Social Care Support Taskforce, to make sure local government’s experience and expertise is used to best effect in the ongoing implementation of the Government’s adult social care action plan to keep people safe and well.”