2017 Pre-Budget Briefing: Social Care

You can read our full Pre-Budget Briefing on Social Care here.

Key points:

• Social care is widely recognised to be in crisis. Prior to the announcement in the Spring Budget 2017 of an additional £2bn over three years, the social care funding gap was estimated to be between £2.8bn and £3.5bn by the end of this parliament.

• Women bear the brunt of the care crisis. The majority of the care workforce, paid and unpaid, are women and the majority of those in need of care are women.

• Local authorities have faced a reduction of £5bn in social care budgets between 2010 and 2015, for which the recent 2% precept and additional £2bn in the 2017 Spring Budget do not compensate. Further, funding social care through council tax or local business rates will deepen regional inequalities as the local authorities with the greatest demand for services are those that are able to raise the least through local taxation.

• As a result of spending cuts since 2008-09, the number of adults in receipt of these services has decreased by 33% from 1.5m to 1m adults in 2013-14. It is estimated that approximately 1.86m people over the age of 50 in England (1 in 10) have unmet care needs.

• There are over 6.6m family members and friends providing unpaid care in the UK and 58% are women. Reductions in formal care services puts a greater burden on unpaid carers. Between 2005 and 2014 the number of hours of unpaid care given increased by 25% from 6.5 to 8.1billion hours a year.

• At a time when the demand for paid care services is increasing, the supply of domiciliary and residential care is becoming more fragile. Between 2010 and 2016 the number of care homes in England fell from 18,000 to 16,600.

• WBG calls on the government to redress the crisis in care by establishing a National Care Service that provides care free at the point of delivery and has equal standing to the NHS.

You can read our full Pre-Budget Briefing on Social Care here.