Social care left out in the cold this winter, Care England says

Care England, the largest representative body for independent providers of adult social care, has expressed concern has once again that social care has been left out of new funding this winter.

The comments comes after the Department of Health and Social Care announced that hospitals would receive £145m to prepare for winter demand.

Care England chief executive Professor Martin Green, OBE, said: “Whist we welcome the Government’s announcement to boost the NHS’ resilience to cope with the inevitable pressures this forthcoming winter it is futile if the social care sector is over looked.  Every winter we see the NHS receive new funding whilst social care does not.”

Story continues below

Advertisement

The government announced on September 7 that the extra funding for the NHS would be used to prepare for winter demand and would include the upgrading of wards, redeveloping A&Es and the provision of extra beds at NHS Trusts across England.

Martin added: “We hope however that the NHS will ensure that it works with the independent care sector to use existing spare capacity in care homes.  The Department of Health and Social Care needs to demonstrate its understanding of the system or revert to type and be called the Department of Health and dispense with the social care.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We have provided local authorities access to £9.4bn in dedicated social care funding over three years.

“In the autumn, we’ll set out our plans to reform the social care system, including funding, to make it sustainable for the future.”

Total public funding for social care was £17.7bn in 2016/17 and the government has released an additional £2bn to relieve short term pressures on the sector.