Local authorities will have access to an extra £1 billion to help them fund social care and address coronavirus pressures next year, the Government has said.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak said investment in public services will allow councils to increase core spending by 4.5%, and they will have extra flexibility to increase council tax and social care precepts.
Councils will be able to access over £1 billion of spending for social care through a £300 million social care grant and the option to levy a 3% adult social care precept.
But shadow care minister, Labour’s Liz Kendall, said the Government had “completely failed” to deliver for social care, while a charity said the approach to the sector was “decidedly reckless”.
The new funding is in addition to the £1 billion social care grant announced last year which is being maintained.
The Government expects to provide local authorities with more than £3 billion to address Covid-19 pressures, including in adult social care.
Ministers said this will help councils maintain care services “while keeping up with rising demand and recovering from the impact of Covid-19”.
It will bring forward proposals for the long-term reform of the adult social care system next year.
Once again the Government has completely failed to deliver for social care. These vital services were already stretched to the limit before the pandemic struck, and are now having to spend billions more on Covid19. #SpendingReview 1/3
— Liz Kendall (@leicesterliz) November 25, 2020
Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK and co-chair of the CSA (Care and Support Alliance) said the funding was “insufficient” to safeguard current levels of services into next year.
The Government’s decisions on social care make it “hard not to conclude we’ve gone backwards”, she added.
She said: “Against the context of the pandemic, which is both driving up the level of need, and weakening the finances of providers, this is a decidedly reckless approach.
“Local authorities are once again being asked to square an impossible circle and this ungenerous settlement does very little to help the NHS either.
“However, it’s older and disabled people, and their families and carers, who will as ever pay the biggest price, with more likely to have to manage without the support they need.
“This is a bitter pill to swallow, especially after everything social care has been through this year.”
Ms Kendall tweeted: “£1bn ‘extra’ Chancellor announced today is nowhere near enough to fill this gap & £700m of this would have to come from social care precept on council tax.
“As for PM’s repeated promises to fix the care crisis, long-term reforms are still nowhere to be seen.
“He promised they’d be published this year & has once again broken his word. Families, care workers & the NHS need a properly functioning care system – and they need it now.”
Professor Martin Green, the chief executive of Care England, welcomed “every penny” but said the funding was “too little too late”.
He added: “Unfortunately on previous occasions when the Government gave huge amounts of money to local authorities it did not reach the front line so we have grave concerns about the delivery mechanism”.
The Government also announced that NHS doctors and nurses will receive a pay rise next year, but pay rises in the rest of the public sector will be paused.
Dame Donna Kinnair, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “Nursing staff across the board will oppose plans to freeze the pay of equally skilled professionals.
“Those working in social care and the community deserve a pay boost as much as their NHS colleagues.”
