Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2016-02-23.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 20 January (HL5278), what are the equivalent figures for public spending on adult social care; and why percentages have declined since 2009/10.
Lord Prior of Brampton
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is usually reported on a United Kingdom basis.
The Department is responsible for reporting on adult social care spend in England and is not in a position to provide equivalent spend figures for adult social care by the devolved administrations.
Spend on adult social care in England, including National Health Service transfers, as a percentage of UK GDP is set out in the table below.
|
Adult Social Care (ASC) £bn |
UK GDP £bn |
Percentage of GDP Spent on ASC |
|
|
2009-10 |
15.7 |
1503.6 |
1.05 |
|
2010-11 |
16.1 |
1574.9 |
1.02 |
|
2011-12 |
15.6 |
1629.1 |
0.95 |
|
2012-13 |
15.4 |
1678.9 |
0.91 |
|
2013-14 |
15.5 |
1756.2 |
0.88 |
|
2014-15 |
15.5 |
1830.4 |
0.85 |
Table notes:
- Spend information for 2009-10 onwards is based upon Department for Communities and Local Government outturn data.
- 2014-15 figures are from Health & Social Care Information Centre Adult Social Care Finance Return data. This data collection is new for 2014-15 and is not comparable to historical spend figures.
- GDP figures sourced from HM Treasury 23 December 2015
Ultimately it is a local decision on how much to spend on adult social care. In order to get the deficit under control, local government has had to find its share of the savings.
Councils have risen to the challenge of achieving savings whilst setting balanced budgets, keeping council tax low and maintaining satisfaction in services. Many grant ring fences have been removed over the last five years, giving councils more flexibility to meet local priorities as they see fit.
