Theresa May has pledged to seek a “long-term solution” to the challenge of funding social care for older people, as she confirmed that local authorities would be allowed to bring forward increases in council tax to ease the pressures on the creaking system.
Challenged by Jeremy Corbyn on what he called the crisis in social care, May said her government would give councils more flexibility to raise more money in the short term – but would also seek a sustainable funding model.
“You cannot look at this question as simply being about money in the short term. If we’re going to give people the reassurance they need in the long term, it’s about finding a way forward that will give a sustainable solution for the future,” she said.
Sajid Javid, the communities secretary, is expected to announce on Thursday that local authorities will be allowed to increase council tax by up to 3% next year and the year after, with the money ringfenced to pay for social care.
The maximum increase had been 2% over each of the next three years, but councils will now be able to make upfront rises of 3% in each of the next two years.
Government sources were keen to stress that no further rises would be permitted – so the total increase in council tax over the three-year period would remain the same, at 6%.
Pressure has been mounting on Downing Street to tackle the demands on social care, since the chancellor, Philip Hammond, triggered a Tory revolt by failing to make more funding available at his autumn statement last month.
In a spirited performance at the final PMQs of 2016, Corbyn said older people were being left to live a “horrible, isolated life, when they should be cared for by all of us, through a properly funded social care system”.
He urged the prime minister to cancel planned cuts to corporation tax, which were confirmed by Hammond, and ringfence the money to fund elderly care.
Corbyn pointed out that increases in council tax raised more in wealthy parts of the country. “Raising council tax has a different outcome in different parts of the country,” he said, adding: “Is she saying that older people – frail, elderly, vulnerable older people – are less valuable in our cities than in other parts of the country?”
May insisted money was not the only answer to the problem, pointing to what she said were poorly performing councils, singling out Ealing council as an example of poor practice for failing to integrate social care with the wider NHS.
“There are also some councils across the country – some Labour councils – who have not taken that opportunity, and where we see a worse performance,” she said, pointing to a “twentyfold” difference in delayed discharges, where hospitals cannot send a patient home because there is no social care in place.
“We recognise that there are indeed pressures on social care, but we also recognise that this is not just about money; it is about delivery,” she said.
New research by the Nuffield Trust health thinktank shows that increasing the council tax precept for social care produces least benefit in the poorer parts of England where need is greatest.
Their analysis has found that this year the local councils in the ten most affluent places in England will raise almost 50% more per head of local population from applying the 2% precept this year than those covering the ten least well-off areas.
Local authorities, which are responsible for social care, have repeatedly said cuts to their funding from central government have put provision at risk.
Sarah Wollaston, the Totnes MP and chair of the health select committee, called for cross-party talks to come up with a long-term solution to the problem.
Hammond has also been considering whether to allow Javid to further boost social care by bringing forward to 2017-18 some of the £1.5bn the government has already pledged to put into the Better Care Fund in phased increases starting next April. That is the £4bn-a-year scheme, co-funded by the NHS and Whitehall and launched by the coalition government, to help keep older people healthier and reduce their risk of ending up in hospital.
However, sources close to the Whitehall discussions about that proposal, which the Local Government Association and NHS bodies have been arguing for, said it was unlikely Javid would increase the £105m injection already planned for the fund next April. One source said: “Theresa May isn’t keen on the Better Care Fund because she sees it as just more money for the NHS through the back door and more money going into the NHS black hole, even though it’s intended to relieve the pressure on overcrowded hospitals.”
Theresa May pledges to seek long-term solution to social care squeeze
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