WELSH councils have called for urgent investment in the upcoming Welsh Government Budget to help meet huge funding pressures in social care.
A WLGA survey of council budgets has identified £106m of in-year pressures in social services (2024-25). An additional £223m pressure is anticipated next year, representing 40% of the overall pressure for local government (£559m) just to stand still.
Councils warn that without further help, meeting care and support needs will become increasingly difficult, impacting NHS and health care service delivery with residents waiting longer for care in the community.
Councillor Charlie McCoubrey, the WLGA’s Health and Social Care Spokesperson, said: “Sustainable investment in social care also needs to be seen as an essential component to the ambition of building an NHS that is fit for the future, where health is about more than healthcare and hospitals.
“The harsh reality is that without additional investment, councils will face difficult choices and decisions on how best to balance their budgets whilst focusing on maintaining essential services. Without increased funding for social care, the existing financial pressures will grow and unfortunately, will severely affect the ability of councils to provide timely, high-quality care and support to those who need it most.”
For more on the WLGA’s warning, please see HERE.
Councils are not alone in expressing grave concerns about the future of social care in Wales. With a 1.2% rise in Employer National Insurance contributions, a cut to the Secondary Threshold to £5,000, and a five per cent increase in the Real Living Wage to £12.60, care sector businesses say they face a £150 million funding hole to plug at a time when social care budgets cannot meet the demand for services. For more on that story, please see HERE.
The situation is particularly alarming in those parts of Wales which are retirement hotspots.
West Wales has a higher proportion of older people than average across Wales, and inward migration is a major factor in the growth of the older population. Almost 9/10 of those moving to Pembrokeshire are over the age of 65.
According to Hywel Dda Health Board projections and County Council statistics, Pembrokeshire’s population over the age of 85 will increase by almost one-third in the next six years. In the meantime, the proportion of the larger cohort of the population over the pension age is forecast to increase by over a quarter.
People are living longer, and they are living longer in poor health with complex needs. Rising demand for nursing care, residential care, supported living services, and home care is putting councils’ budgets under huge pressure, especially in rural areas and West Wales.
North Wales’s council leaders wrote recently to the First Minister in apocalyptic terms.
In that letter, Council leaders said: “There is a legacy of governments not funding new legal requirements (e.g. ALN), imposing policy requirements on local government without appropriate funding (e.g. asylum seekers and homelessness), not fully funding pay awards (e.g. teachers’ pay, local government employees and care workers); not recognising the demand pressures in social care (both children’s and adults) and not similarly funding health and social care.
“Those national decisions mean that local government finance in Wales is not sustainable in the short to medium term. It is likely that a number of local authorities will not be financially sustainable within 12 months, with a risk that a greater number will become financially unsustainable within 24 months.”
Speaking in the Senedd on Tuesday, November 12, Eluned Morgan said: “Local authorities are making their case to us, as are many other organisations in Wales, and we are very aware of the kinds of pressures they’re under, particularly the kind of increase in demand that they’re having to deal with, particularly in terms of care and children in care and housing, and all kinds of other areas.So we’re very well aware that they are under pressure.”
The Welsh Government is no nearer to integrating health and social care than it was when Vaughan Gething announced plans to achieve that end.
A further Welsh Parliamentary Review in January 2018 highlighted the significant pressures faced by health and social care services in Wales, including recruitment and retention of staff and increasing demand for services.
Since that report, Councils and Health Boards have supposedly been working towards creating a fully integrated health and social care system in line with the Welsh Government’s long-term plan and vision outlined in A Healthier Wales.
That document contained the following pledge: “We will develop ‘new models of seamless local health and social care’, which will scale from local to national level. These models will build on a foundation of local innovation, including clusters of primary and community care providers. Regional partnership boards, which bring together local authorities, health boards, and third-sector providers, will occupy a strong role in overseeing and coordinating.
“Regional partnership work will be at the heart of developing high-value models of integrated health and social care, which will be promoted for wider adoption across Wales. A national Transformation Programme will ensure that change happens quickly and with purpose across Wales.”
The benchmarks set for meeting those targets were 2019 and 2020. They remain unmet and as far away from being achieved- if not further – now as they were in 2018.
The problem will not be solved by £50m and a 50-day ten-point challenge (please see HERE). However, the Westminster Government has kicked social care reform way into the long grass. Where it leads, Eluned Morgan’s ministry follows.
