Sector receives a £3.8bn boost in CSR including £2bn from NHS

Social care looks set to reap substantial benefit from the £3.8bn settlement for 2015/16 announced in last month’s comprehensive spending review, though one of the strings is that it will have to be demonstrably spent on services jointly commissioned by the NHS and social services and, more cryptically, the government has said that to stimulate real change, £1bn of this funding will be paid when local results are achieved’. The good news for social care is that the bulk of the £3.8m will come out of the £110bn NHS settlement, including £2bn of new NHS funding in addition to a roll-over of the existing £1.1bn of annual NHS funding for social care relating to healthcare needs’ from the previous (2010) comprehensive spending review. The remaining £0.7m will come from existing health and social care commitments’, according to the Department of Health. The government has stated that this funding will be used to improve adult social care and join up health services with the aim of helping older and vulnerable people to stay healthy and remain at home so they do not end up in hospital’. A Department of Health spokeswoman told CCMn that the funding would be not be ring-fenced but would be allocated towards projects or initiatives that integrate health and social care. Further details of exactly how this will work are expected to be released at the end of the summer. A further £200m will also be given to local authorities from NHS funds in 2014-15 to invest in new systems and joined up ways of working so the changes can be put in place as soon as possible. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: For decades we have been talking about better integrated health and social care services and today we’ve put our money where our mouth is. We need to work differently to respond to the changing needs of the population and that means making joined-up services the norm, not the exception.