Further Cuts to Adult Social Care
- 20 Dec
There are further cuts ahead for adult social care as the Government announced further reductions to council budgets.
There will be a 1.7% reduction in the council budgets next year, which means social care funding will come under further strain and will total almost £2bn of cuts in adult social care.
The figure for 2013-14, which does not take inflation into account, comes on top of estimated cash reductions of 3.3% in 2012-13 and 4.7% in 2011-12, and as pressures for services are high with 2012 being a record year for applications for care proceedings.
The government revealed that councils in England would face spending reductions of up to 8.8% from April, with an average cut of 1.7%.
Local authorities say that this will result in financially weak councils will go bust and others will be forced to drastically reduce services to cope with cuts, but Eric Pickles insists that the cuts are fair.
Communities secretary Eric Pickles said the settlement was a fair funding deal:
Councils that put their thinking caps on now can save precious taxpayer pennies next year by cutting out waste and transforming frontline services that vulnerable people rely on.
According to the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services' annual budget surveys, cuts in government funding for councils from 2011-13 translated into reductions of almost £2bn in adult social care expenditure over the two years.
Unison head of local government Heather Wakefield said:
Local councils are already under the government's financial cosh and today's cuts will push many more vital services over the edge. Around the country libraries, day centres, and youth clubs are closing, care is being rationed as eligibility criteria become ever tighter, and young people find careers advice has all but disappeared.
Image source: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1197499
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