The impact of Chancellor George Osborne’s CSR on social work and social care…
20th October 2010
Today, at 12.30pm, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, presented his Comprehensive Spending Review in Parliament. But how will this impact upon social workers, and social care professionals?
Whilst the CSR gave broad details of the funding, cuts and alterations to be made to all areas public expenditure, it is clear that in order to fully understand the impact on social work and social care, far more detail is required. Today’s announcement was one of broad plans and funding, and the in depth explanations will come later.
Some key elements which can be highlighted are:
- Councils will face cuts of 7% per year over the next four years.
- The government will look to encourage new providers in adult social care.
- Grant funding for social care will be increased by £1bn by 2014, and a further £1bn will come from the NHS for joint working with social care.
- Personal budgets for adults and disabled children will be expanded.
- In children’s services, councils are still waiting to see if lobbying to create a ring-fenced grant for early intervention has been successful.
- Next month, each government department will set out a business plan saying how cuts will be implemented
We were very happy to be invited to take part in Community Care’s live discussion of the CSR on their website (still available here). Here is just a sample of the views shared by key thinkers so far today:
Maurice Bates (interim co-chair of The College of Social Work):
“Any cuts will put pressure not only on the already stretched local authority social work teams, but also on the voluntary and private sector providers of social work services”.
ComCare Children (via Twitter):
Community Care Children were sceptical about George Osborne’s claims that spending cuts will have “no measurable impact” on child poverty, and concerned by the lack of coverage for children’s services.
‘Fighting Monsters’ (a social worker’s blog):
“Eligibility criteria are already being squeezed so this funding will likely go to the very sickest people who are unable to manage most of their own personal care for themselves.”
Mencap Charity (via Twitter):
The anounced public spending on social care will be the same as it was in 2008 – that’s the same year that Mencap highlighted a crisis in social care.
Bronagh Miskelly (Community Care Editor):
The Editor called for more detail on key issues, saying; “News on the investment in dementia is excellent, but what we need now is details…”
More to follow…
