Source · Select Committees · Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
Recommendation 5
5
Accepted
Paragraph: 39
The covid-19 pandemic had the effect of raising public awareness of adult social care.
Conclusion
The covid-19 pandemic had the effect of raising public awareness of adult social care. It also achieved general support for a tax increase specifically to plug the long- standing funding gap. However, the Government has missed this opportunity. It has done so firstly by allocating the vast majority of the proceeds of its Health and Social Care Levy to the NHS, and secondly by in theory ringfencing what little funding it has allocated to adult social care for reforms rather than for cost pressures. Members of the public are seeing taxes on their payslips going to health and social care, yet we heard the money going to social care “won’t touch the sides”.
Government Response Summary
The government states that the savings from delaying the implementation of charging reform are being retained in local authority budgets to help them meet the current pressures in social care, with additional funding being provided.
Paragraph Reference:
39
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
As announced in the Autumn Statement 2022, we listened to the concerns of local government and took the difficult decision to delay implementation of the planned reforms to the adult social care charging system (known as ‘charging reform’). Alongside this, the planned extension of Section 18(3) to enable self-funders in residential care to access local authority commissioning has also been delayed. This delay gives local authorities additional time to prepare for rollout, and none of the £3.6 billion announced for charging reform in 2021 has been diverted away. The savings from this decision are being retained in local authority budgets to help them meet the current pressures in social care. In fact, we are providing even more funding for adult social care on top of the £3.6 billion, with an additional £2.7 billion in new grant funding. This is because we are absolutely committed to ensuring that everyone has access to the right care and support they need, at the right time. The government published an initial impact assessment in January 2022, which sets out its modelling of the costs and benefits of charging reform. An updated impact assessment will be published in advance of implementation. Additionally, in preparing for implementation in October 2023, the government developed robust monitoring and evaluation plans for the rollout of charging reform to monitor short and long-term impacts on individuals and the care market. These plans will also be reviewed ahead of implementation. 12 Government response Conclusion 10 – assessor recruitment and training Conclusion 10 - While the changed timetable for rolling out Section 18(3) will help to stagger the additional assessments local authorities will need to conduct, we are nevertheless concerned about local authorities’ capacity to conduct tens of thousands of additional assessments, particularly given the size of the backlog that already exists. We are further concerned that the Government’s proposed workarounds will place additional strain on those requesting care and care workers, and could lead to an inconsistent service being provided and an increase in complaints.