CM Local Authorities

The Department of Health requires a deeper understanding of the best ways to implement personalised commissioning as vast gaps in its use are identified between local authorities, according to the latest analysis from the National Audit Office (NAO).

The Local Government Association has said that, while nine in ten councils in England are considering or have approved plans to increase council tax by 2% to pay for social care, the £372m raised will not be enough to alleviate the pressure on services for elderly or disabled people.

After the National Living Wage and the postponement of the care cap, social care funding crisis could be further exacerbated by an increasing number of people planning to deplete their assets in order to qualify for state support.

Almost half of councils are ignoring new rules to protect families from unnecessarily paying top-up fees, according to campaign group Independent Age. It found that out of 53 councils responding to Freedom of Information requests, 43% did not comply with at least one of the requirements.

Analysis of health and care funding and expenditure commissioned by County Councils’ Network (CCN), has found that its members have witnessed the largest reductions in adult social care finance.

Almost three quarters of homecare providers that supplied services to councils said they would have to reduce the amount of publicly-funded care, according to a UK Homecare Association (UKHCA) survey. This would affect around half of all the service users they support, they reported.

A King’s Fund survey has found that cuts to local authority’s social care budgets are adversely affecting health services in the majority of regions. Nearly nine out of 10 of NHS trust finance directors and eight in 10 CCG finance leads said the cuts had damaged health services.

For the first time the Health and Social Care Information Centre has published detailed statistics on requests for social care.

North Yorkshire county council has appointed six partners in a £650m deal that aims to bring extra care accommodation to every major town in the area.

Trends unclear’ is not a great headline, but that’s the only conclusion that can be drawn from the Health and Social Care Information Centre’s annual exercise to collate data laboriously compiled by 150 councils across England.