Geoffrey Cox – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Geoffrey Cox on 2016-04-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government is taking to ensure local authorities can adequately fund learning disability services.

Alistair Burt

In the national service model and Building the Right Support published in October 2015, NHS England, the Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services set out how areas would be supported to deliver lasting change to people with a learning disability and/or autism who display behaviour that challenges.

This includes service transformation – shifting money from some services, such as inpatient care, into others, such as community services.

To support this NHS England is making available up to £30 million of transformation funding over three years, to be matched by clinical commissioning groups, and £15 million in capital funding. This funding is in addition to the £10 million which was made available to six fast track areas in 2015/16.

The Government has supported adult social care, which includes care for those with learning disabilities, by giving local authorities access to up to £3.5 billion of new support by 2019/20. This includes the adult social care precept, allowing councils to increase council tax by 2% above the existing threshold, as well as additional social care monies to be included in the Better Care Fund.