Nearly two-thirds (63%) of councils in England overspent on their adult social care budgets in 2022/23, with 72% of those councils using one-off reserves to fund the gap – up from 37% in 2021/22.
That’s according to a new report from the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), which said the use of reserves was “worrying” and “not a sustainable approach for the longer term”.
The report stated: “Although there is now greater clarity over levels of central government funding for the next two financial years, it is painfully clear that adult social care is a very long way from being ‘fixed’.”
For the current financial year, 2023/24, 29% of councils said that they would be using nonrecurrent funding such as council reserves to fund their adult social care base budgets. This represents an increase from 15% in 2022/23.
The annual ADASS survey questioned 153 directors of adult social care across all the English regions, generating a 94% response rate.
The overspend on adult care budgets in 2022/23 totalled £73.66m nationally, ADASS said. Some 34% of councils reported underspending on their budgets, with directors surveyed for the report citing the provision of one-off/time-limited government grants and increased levels of efficiency, among other reasons. The remaining 3% of councils reporting a breakeven position.
ADASS noted that one means of increasing the budget available to councils for adult social care is by raising council tax and the adult social care precept. The association’s survey asked how much councils were planning to increase council tax for 2023/24 (excluding the adult social care precept), with 71% of councils settling on or about the maximum level of increase which does not require a referendum. Just 5% of councils reported no increase at all.
As to the level at which councils levied the adult social care precept for 2023/24, some 94% of councils chose to charge the maximum amount before a referendum is required, with only 1% of councils not charging the precept at all.
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ADASS also noted that the local government finance settlement for 2023/24 included the continuation of the social care grant, which now totals £3.85bn, an increase of £1.345bn from 2022/23. The grant can be used for either children’s or adult social care. This year the proportion allocated to adult social care was 61%, an increase of 2% on the previous survey result.
However, ADASS said it was important to note that the proportion allocated to adult social care varies greatly from council to council – from 100% of the grant, to 0%.
Directors of adult social services are reporting that for 2023/24 they have planned to deliver £806m in savings to their budgets, equating to around 4% of net adult social care budgets, ADASS said. By comparison, in 2022/23 the planned savings were £597m, or 3.5% of net adult social care budgets.
In the past four years directors have reported cumulative savings of £2.6bn to adult social care budgets; over the previous decade this figure was £7.7bn. Only a quarter of the directors surveyed were “fully confident” they could deliver their planned savings in 2023/24 and 2024/25.
ADASS also asked directors about their confidence levels that their budgets will be sufficient to meet their statutory duties. Responses remained fairly consistent between 2022/23 and 2023/24, ADASS said, although a smaller proportion are fully confident in 2024/25 – at just 6%. Some 59% said they were “partially confident”, and 17% said they were “not confident”, with 18% not able to return an answer.
The ADASS report found that short-term funding boosts from government had helped reduce the number of people waiting for care and increased support for people at home. But increases in care delivered are not keeping pace with increased needs, it concluded.
The association called on government to provide investment, support for carers and increased workforce pay. It also called for a “fully funded, long-term plan to transform social care to ensure everyone in England can get the care and support they need, when they need it”.
Responding to the survey, David Baines, vice-chair of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, said: “This crucial annual report gives a comprehensive view of the many pressures facing social care, their consequences for people, the workforce and providers, and the legitimate and serious concerns of directors of adult services.
“While the decrease in the number of people waiting for care assessments is a positive and notable achievement, a record NHS backlog, rising mental health needs, support around domestic abuse of people with care and support needs, means that demand continues to rise for councils.
“The fact that directors are having to plan savings of £806m as part of wider council budget-setting in 2023/24, further demonstrates the extremely challenging situation adult social care is facing.
“It is deeply concerning to see that most councils are not confident they can meet all of their statutory duties required by law. This, partnered with the increase in the number of unpaid carers reporting burnout, could have serious impacts for many people who draw on care and support.
“This report shows the impact of a chronically underfunded system and the pressures councils continue to face. We support the recommendations of this report and urge the government to implement a fully costed, long-term, sustainable plan to fund social care.”
The full ADASS report can be read here.
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