Tel: 01937 222107

Looking to Sell Looking to Buy

A Tough Four Years Ahead

With funding cuts unavoidable, ADASS forecast a tough four years ahead......

The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) has warned that care services for vulnerable adults “face a tough four years starting from now.”

Responding to the Health Select Committee’s report on health and social care finance published yesterday, ADASS President Richard Jones said: “this report, coming at the same time as the Government has announced very exacting revenue support levels for English local authorities, confirms our view that a considerable gap will open up between the rising needs and demands of older people and adults with disabilities, and the resources available to meet them. Social services directors will make every efficiency saving that they capable of. But I fear that, as Members of Parliament have confirmed, it will be impossible in some authorities to maintain the standards of care we provide without restricting eligibility for those services.”

He went on to welcome the Select Committee’s encouragement for health and social care further to integrate and streamline services - one way at least in which genuine productivity and efficiency savings can be made. But he agreed with the Committee's conclusion that improving the interface cannot be about health making efficiency gains `at the expense of social care’. He also welcomed the Committee’s understanding of the uncertainties built into the system by the removal of the ring-fence surrounding the PSS grant.

“The changes to the grant are welcome and allow for real local discretion. But councils are facing the toughest reduction in funding since the second world war, and adult social care - being the largest part of controllable spend - will come under significant pressure."

December 2010