Spending Review: Chancellor's £1 billion offer branded 'bitter pill' that won't cure social care's ills

Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Spending Review offered £1 billion for social care but since care providers, MPs and lords have argued the sector needed at least £7 billion a year before the pandemic, the money has been called a "bitter pill" after a year spent battling the COVID-19 virus.

In the House of Commons on 25 November, Rishi Sunak announced £300 million in a new central government grant for councils for social care and powers for councils to levy a three per cent council tax precept to fund social care. Sunak said that adds up to £1 billion in new money.

Rishi Sunak also announced a continuation of £1 billion announced in 2019 for both adult and children’s care - around half of which typically goes to adult care.

Councils have estimated the pandemic has added a further £6.6 billion in costs in just six months with costs rising and occupancy falling. More than 18,000 people are reported to have died from COVID-19 in care homes alone.

Chancellor missed chance to ‘play fair’ for social care

Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK and co-chair of the CSA (Care and Support Alliance) said: “Today the Government passed up the opportunity to play fair with social care, instead granting it insufficient extra money to safeguard the current level of services through next year.

“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."

’Bitter pill’ is ’too little too late’

Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, which represents care homes has described the extra money as a ‘drop in the ocean’ in terms of what the sector needs.

Martin Green said: “Of course £1 billion is welcome, we welcome every penny, but in comparison with the NHS and the challenges that the sector faces, this figure is too little and too late.

“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.

“As a result of the decisions announced today social care will be even weaker by then than it is now. It’s hard not to conclude we’ve gone backwards. This is a bitter pill to swallow, especially after everything social care has been through this year.”

'Exceptionally disappointing' says UKHCA

The United Kingdom Homecare Association (UKHCA) had called for at least £1.4billion from the Chancellor for domiciliary care services alone. Its policy director Colin Angel called the one-year Spending Review "exceptionally disappointing".

"It fails to address, amongst other things, the significant contribution that social care makes to enabling us all to live well at home, and which our valued workforce makes to the economy.

"£1 billon across adults’ and children’s services, combined with the discretionary use of the Social Care Precept by local councils, does not bring social care further forward. Nor does it begin to address an underfunded system which was already fragile before the start of the pandemic."

He announced increases in the statutory National Minimum Wage and the National Living Wage. He said the National Living wage will rise by 2.2 per cent (19p) to £8.91 per hour. The rate will be extended to those aged 23 and over.

Rishi Sunak said public sector pay would be frozen, except for the lowest paid as well as NHS staff who will get a salary rise. Over a million NHS workers will get a pay rise. Some 2.1 million public sector workers earning below the median wage of £24,000 were "guaranteed a pay rise of at least £250".

Care England welcomed the pay rise for nurses and hopes this extends to independent sector nurses “who are equally vital to help look after our society and therefore that this will feed into the Funded Nursing Care rate for 2021/22 and continuing healthcare fees also next year”.

'Falls a long way short'

Sally Warren, director of policy at The King’s Fund, said of the £1 billion offer: "It is unlikely to be enough to address the pressures faced by services across the country, which are likely to require more emergency funding next year. Funding for social care in particular falls a long way short of what is needed to meet the needs of service users, their families and carers, let alone reform the system."

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said in his speech: “Our health emergency is not yet over and our economic emergency has only just begun. So our immediate priority is to protect people’s lives and livelihoods".

But Fiona Carragher, director of research and influencing at Alzheimer’s Society said: "People with dementia, who are by far the biggest recipients of social care, have been catastrophically hit, dying in their thousands.

“Eighteen months ago, the Government said they would fix the social care crisis once and for all. In the last nine months, the utterly shattered state of the still un-fixed system has been lit up for all to see by coronavirus.

"Why is basic care somehow seen as a luxury? Where is the universal social care that’s free at the point of use, on the same basis as schools and the NHS?"

Mr Sunak said the government would spend £280 billion this year "to get our country through coronavirus".

The chancellor said £18 billion will be spent on COVID-19 testing, PPE and vaccines and £500 million for mental health services in England.

The UK is forecast to borrow £394 billion this year. The chancellor also warned the nation “our economic output is not expected to return to pre-crisis levels until the fourth quarter of 2022”.