Local authorities in England will receive £1.36bn to increase rates paid to adult social care providers, the Government has said.
According to the DHSC, the funding will be drawn from the Health and Social Care Levy, as part of a ‘10-year vision for reform’ set out in the adult social care white paper.
In the first year of the plan, local authorities will receive an extra £162 million, followed by £600 million in years two and three.
The DHSC said that local authorities will not be able to spend more than 25% of the funding on implementation costs during that first year to ensure ‘remaining funding goes towards genuine increases in fee rates’.
Local authorities will also be expected to assess the various costs care providers face in their area.
Health secretary Sajid Javid suggested that ensuring adults receive appropriate and timely social care requires ‘a thriving adult social care market’ which will ‘only be possible if providers receive a fairer cost for care’.
It comes as the Treasury confirmed the controversial National Insurance (NI) hike – which will fund the levy – will be going ahead from 1 April as planned.
However, Chancellor Rishi Sunak did not pledge any additional funding for the NHS or social care sector as part of his spring budget plan.
A number of stakeholders criticised the Government’s limited actions to resolve the cost-of-living crisis, arguing it will bring about a ‘domino effect’ on the pressures facing the NHS.
And think tanks previously claimed the Government’s 10-year-vision for social care does not do enough to address the workforce crisis engulfing the sector.
According to the Nuffield Trust, the social care workforce shrunk by 42,000 in the six months leading up to the end of October.
