Local government figures have voiced scepticism about chancellor Philip Hammond’s pledge to provide councils with additional grant funding of £2bn to bail out adult social care in England.
The chancellor said that £1bn of the cash would be available for the coming financial year, with the remainder available over the subsequent two years.
Figures released by the Treasury on individual allocations to 152 councils show Kent County Council is the biggest beneficiary with an extra £52.2m earmarked for adult social care over the period.
However, Clive Betts, chairman of the communities and local government select committee, said that although the pledge was welcome, it fell short of the £1.5bn needed to plug next year’s funding gap.
He said: “For the following years up to 2020, the government should commit to getting a true picture of what is required by helping the National Audit Office (NAO) determine the level of funding the government will need to find for 2018/19 and 2019/20.
“The government should provide explicit confirmation that the funding today is new money. From the budget documents, it is not clear this is the case.”
The committee’s pre-budget report estimated the funding gap in adult social care ranges from £1.3bn to £1.9bn in 2017-18 and £1.1bn to £2.6bn in 2019-20.
Richard Harbord, former chief executive of Boston Borough Council, pointed to a requirement for authorities to work with the NHS to decide how the new money will be spent.
“It is likely that councils will have to submit a strategy to clinical commissioning groups. This means the money won’t be given to local authorities to spend as a right,” he said.
The government said the announcement would enable local government to increase social care-specific resources in real terms in each of the remaining three years of this Parliament.
Hammond also said that just 24 local authorities are responsible for over half of all delayed discharges to social care.
He said: “So, alongside additional funding, the health and communities secretaries will announce measures to identify and support authorities which are struggling, and to ensure more joined up working with the NHS.”
Lord Porter, chairman of the Local Government Association, said that the review “cannot end up being kicked into the long grass like other social care reviews, inquiries, commissions and their recommendations have been in the past decade”.
He said that local government leaders must play a fundamental part in the review, which needs cross-party support.
Rob Whiteman, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, welcomed the review announcement, but added: “It is worrying that the chancellor has already limited his options by ruling out some of the more radical proposals.
“It is imperative that all possible solutions are explored.”
The Office for Budget Responsibility, in a report released alongside the budget, said that additional social care funding had caused it to reduce slightly the extent to which it expects local authorities to draw down reserves in 2017-18 and 2018-19.
