On Tuesday 2nd of October the Health Secretary announced additional £240m funding for social care.

Funding to local authorities will be payable in 2018-19 to help deal with winter pressures.  In the statement, the Health Secretary says:

“I am making an extra £240 million available to councils to pay for social care packages this winter to support our NHS”

The £240m will be allocated to local authorities using the adult social care relative needs formula.  This was also the basis that was used to allocate the additional £150m announced alongside the final settlement earlier this year.

The RSN assume the payments will be made direct to local authorities, although no confirmation has been provided yet by the Department of Health and Social Care. 

We had been expecting additional social care funding for next year (2019-20) but this demonstrates that there is pressure on the Government to fund adult social care, particularly where it affects the delivery of NHS services.  

RSN want to see the way this is distributed being fair for rural areas where it costs more to deliver services and our ageing population is growing. A long term plan remains essential.

Full article:

→ GOV.UK - £240 million social care investment to ease NHS winter pressures