One in ten councils have cut their spending on social care by more than a quarter, a new report has found.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said overall local authority spending on social care fell by 11% in real terms between 2009/10 and 2015/16. It also found six in every seven councils having made at least some cut in its care spending per adult resident over the period.

Long-term funding is needed to solve a crisis in adult care, local government leaders have warned.

Cllr Linda Thomas, vice chair of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, said councils were doing all they could to protect the spending but faced significant pressures including ageing population, inflation and the National Living Wage.

Cllr Thomas said the report reflected the ‘historic and chronic underfunding of adult social care by successive governments which has forced councils to make tough decisions on their care budgets‘.

‘Councils are doing all they can to protect adult social care budgets and the £2 billion for adult social care in the Spring Budget is a significant step towards protecting the services caring for the most vulnerable in our communities over the next few years.

‘However, short-term pressures remain and we still desperately need a long-term solution to tackling the funding crisis to help provide care and support for people to enable them to live more independent, fulfilled lives.’

Mark Whitehead

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