If you are reading this Simran the add news section is now adding the date correctly. Safe. Now delete this message

test testtesttesttest test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test

Elderly care services are "teetering on the brink" due to a lack of government funding, council leaders have warned.

As peers prepared to debate adult social care in the House of Lords, 45 council leaders signed a letter to the Guardian warning that the present situation was "unsustainable" and urging the government to provide more money.

Speaking ahead of the Lords' debate, Lord Bruce-Lockhart, the chair of the Local Government Association, the council lobby group, said that councils were having to resort to rationing of care for old people to cope with the "wholly unsatisfactory" situation.

Lord Bruce-Lockhart said that pressure on services was set to worsen in the coming years, as numbers of over-85s are predicted to increase from 1.2m now to 4m by 2050.
He drew on a recent social care report published by Derek Wanless on behalf of the King's Fund, the health thinktank, which called for a £1bn annual boost in funding to reflect the growing demands borne by services as people live longer.

Last month, the government's chief inspector of social services, Paul Snell, signalled the increasing use of rationing as he warned that cash-strapped councils were refusing to provide home-care services to people needing help to dress or bathe unless their condition was grave enough to pass a strict eligibility test.

In today's letter, the council leaders wrote: "Ever-growing numbers of elderly with ever-greater complexity of cases, combined with a government grant that has failed to match that spent on other key services, means that services for the elderly are now teetering on the brink. The present situation is unsustainable."

Council chiefs are angry that, despite meeting the huge efficiency gains demanded by the Treasury, local authorities are being forced to divert funds to social care to make up the shortfall.

"The council tax payer, quite rightly, should not be asked to shoulder this burden alone", the council leaders wrote.

"Therefore, ahead of the debate today in the House of Lords, we are calling for the government to recognise the true scale of the problem, the potential it has to adversely affect some of the most vulnerable in our society and, finally, to work with us to find a viable and lasting solution."

Lord Bruce-Lockhart told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the Wanless report on health provision had recommended a £1bn year-on-year increase in spending on services for the elderly, but he said that this had not been provided by the chancellor, Gordon Brown.

While the NHS had enjoyed a 90% real-terms increase in funding over the last 10 years, local authorities saw their government grants rise by just 14%.

"The social services directors' report this year showed that they were delivering 6% more weeks of care to elderly people in one year alone," he said.

"Half of the social service authorities in England have had an increase of 2% or less. The two simply don't fit."

Lord Bruce-Lockhart warned: "Because the money doesn't fit, councils are having to raise eligibility criteria and that is actually rationing care and that must be wrong.

"That's wholly unsatisfactory. We are joined by Age Concern, Help the Aged, the King's Fund, numerous charities, in saying this isn't easy, but it just needs someone in government to take a hard decision and put the money in that the Wanless report has called for."

The Department of Health disputed the claims and today insisted that social care for elderly people was a "priority area".

Overall funding for adult social services had risen by 2.7% in real terms over the past three years, a DoH spokeswoman said.



Source: The Guardian