Future of adult social care - still time to have your say

As the Local Government Association consults on the future of adult social care, Cllr Paulette Hamilton talks about why we must have a public debate about how to fund this vital service

Like local authorities up and down the land, Birmingham has waited for a decade for the Government’s proposals on adult social care funding; over the years there have been many indications of white and green papers emerging but all have failed to address the issue.

So in recent years we have had to put up with short-term fixes. While we have been very grateful for these sticking plasters in the form of the Better Care Funding and improved Better Care Funding to help meet the increasing demand for adult social care services, we must not lose sight of the fact that they are just that – papering over the cracks as services continue to be at breaking point.

I am delighted that the LGA has said that enough is enough and are forcing a public discussion on the future of adult social care and how we are to fund such critical mandatory services properly. The LGA green paper ‘The lives we want to lead’ has been upfront and clear that this is not just about funding but also about the need to change the way we provide care, with more focus on prevention and personalisation.

For far too long the preoccupation has been on hospital waiting lists and delays in transfers of care. We need to shift the discussion onto the importance of social care services, and how through social care we can reduce the crises in our hospitals. To do this, we need to be honest about how social care is funded.

There still remains a lot of confusion on the worth of social care how social care is funded and that unlike the health service it is not a free service but a means-tested service. Adult social care services are vast and provide a range of services, from providing help with everyday tasks such as getting out of bed, washing, to day care access and residential services. Adult Social Care focuses on helping people remain independent and supporting those discharged from hospital.

We have been transforming over recent years to community prevention with the focus on individual wellbeing, population and place, not structures, buildings, systems and silos, so people can live with dignity, independence and control.

We want to widen the debate so I would encourage people to take part in the consultation which forms part of the green paper. For those who haven’t already taken part, there is a week to go before it closes on 26 September so there is still time, and it can be found here: www.futureofadultsocialcare.co.uk

In Birmingham alone over the past few years we have had to make millions of pounds of savings and have really cut back on the services that least impact on the most vulnerable, but we cannot continue to do this as there is very little remaining that is funded by core budgets that are not statutory services. We have been focusing on modernising and efficiencies but there remains little room to manoeuvre.

There have been, and will continue to be, some very difficult decisions we have to make. Some we would need to make irrespective of austerity and the funding crisis, as we know this is the right direction of travel to provide modern adult social care services which meets the needs and aspirations of our citizens now and in the future. However, the difficult area all councils will have to look at is how we pay for services that are not mandatory, and for how long.

This LGA green paper is timely as we need to have this debate about how we make our society a great place to grow old in; it is a conversation that matters to us all as we and or our loved ones are all likely be in contact with adult social care at some point. Following the consultation the LGA will produce a response which we hope will influence the government’s plans in the eagerly awaited green paper but also hopefully the budget and spending review.

This blog was posted on 20 September 2018

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