Lord Scriven – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Scriven on 2015-11-26.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assumptions they have made about the increase in demand for social care in calculating that the new 2 per cent council tax levy and the £1.5 billion for the Better Care Fund, announced in the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, would meet future demand; and whether they will list the assumptions made and the projected increase in demand for each year from 2015 to 2020.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Spending Review decisions take into account a range of financial and economic factors as well as changes in demand. Our analysis of adult social care demand drew on:

‒ academic modelling of future demand for services;

‒ projections and data on pay including the National Living Wage from the Office of Budget Responsibility and Skills for Care;

‒ gross domestic product deflators for inflation; and

‒ consideration of the potential for efficiencies and savings, based on a range of sources.

That analysis informed the decision to provide a settlement which means local government has access to the funding it needs to increase social care spending in real terms by the end of the Parliament, including:

‒ The social care precept which puts money raising powers into the hands of local areas who understand the need in their area and who are best placed to respond;

‒ From 2017-18, social care funds for local government, rising to £1.5 billion by 2019-20, to be included in an improved Better Care Fund; and

‒ More than double the funding for the heavily oversubscribed Disabled Facilities Grant to over £500 million per annum by 2019-20.