£4.9m cash boost to tackle bed-blocking at our hospitals this winter
Local authority leaders in Staffordshire say they need a long-term solution for funding care
Phil Corrigan
The funding will pay for things like home care packages (Image: Getty)
Councils in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire will receive £4.8 million of additional social care funding to help services cope this winter.
The Government announced earlier this month that local authorities in England would share a £240m pot aimed at reducing bed-blocking in hospitals over the next few months.
Individual allocations, based on the adult social care relative needs formula, have now been revealed, with Stoke-on-Trent City Council and Staffordshire County Council set to receive £1.33m and £3.54m respectively. Cheshire East Council has been allocated £1.45m.
Ministers say the money can be spent on things such as home care, reablement packages and adaptations in order to cut delayed transfers of care (DTOC).
Council leaders have welcomed the extra funding, but say there needs to be a longer term solution for meeting the ever rising cost of adult social care.
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Alan White, the county council's deputy leader and cabinet member for health, care and wellbeing, said: "While we welcome the money to help ease some of the winter pressures, we still need a long term solution to how we fund care for a growing ageing population.
"In the last 10 years the county council has seen spending on all care increase by more than £100m, at a time when national funding has continued to fall.
The funding is aimed at reducing delayed transfers of care (Image: Getty)
"It is now crucial that as a country we address the growing funding gap between the demands of social care and the money we have to fund it."
City council leader Ann James, who is also cabinet member for health and social care, said: "We very much welcome this grant, which is coming from a national scheme aimed at helping local authorities to ease the pressure on the NHS over winter. Its main purpose is to help get patients home quicker and free up hospital beds.
"In Stoke-on-Trent, the money will be used to fund additional domiciliary care packages, re-ablement services, home adaptations and other social care services over the winter period – supplementing the services that we already have in place."
In August there were 1,086 DTOC days recorded in Stoke-on-Trent, but only 27 of these were due to issues with social care. But in Staffordshire, 1,319 out of 3,106 delayed days were entirely due to social care.
Across both areas, patients spent 1,434 days in hospital waiting for a care package in their own homes and 84 days waiting for community equipment or adaptations.
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The Government has previously allowed local authorities to raise more funds for social care through a council tax precept. Stoke-on-Trent's three per cent social care precept in 2018/19 is expected to raise £2.3m.
Andy Day, co-ordinator at North Staffs Pensioners' Convention, says short-term fixes will not address the underlying problems facing social care.
He said: "Any extra money is to be welcomed, but given the extent of the crisis in social care, this is not enough. Long-term solutions are needed, not short-term measures.
"Experts say that the system will need £3.5 billion by 2025 to respond to pressures. In our area the closure of community hospitals is piling extra pressure on a social care system under huge stress."
Earlier this year ministers announced £145m of winter resilience funding for the NHS, and £36.3 million for ambulance trusts, after pressures on hospitals, including the Royal Stoke, reached critical levels last year.
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Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock said: "I want to help the NHS through this winter. I have already provided funding for hospitals to make upgrades to their buildings to deal with pressures this winter, and I can announce that I am making an extra £240 million available to councils to pay for social care packages this winter to support our NHS.
"We will use this money to get people who don't need to be in hospital, but do need care, back home, back into their communities, so we can free up those vital hospital beds, and help people who really need it, get the hospital care they need."
Staffordshire County Council
Stoke-on-Trent City Council
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