Edel Harris
The Budget
The
Budget
A budget is a plan where you look at how much money you have and how you will spend it.
is the plan
the government
The Government are the people who run the country. The Government decide how much
tax
Tax is the money that pays for things like schools, hospitals and the police. There are different types of taxes like
income tax
Income tax is the money that is taken out of the money you earn every month. It helps to pay for things we all need like hospitals and schools.
,
VAT
VAT is also called Value Added Tax. VAT is the extra money you pay when you buy things. The money goes to the government to pay for things like schools and hospitals.
and
council tax
Council
A council is also called a
local authority
A local authority is also called a council. They are a group of people who make decisions about some of the things in the area where you live like schools,
social care
Social care means the services that give care and support to people who need it.
(support for people), parks and dustbin collection.
. They are a group of people who make decisions about some of the things in the area where you live. These include: schools, social care (support for people), parks and dustbin collection.
Tax is the money that people pay to the
council
A council is also called a
local authority
A local authority is also called a council. They are a group of people who make decisions about some of the things in the area where you live like schools,
social care
Social care means the services that give care and support to people who need it.
(support for people), parks and dustbin collection.
. They are a group of people who make decisions about some of the things in the area where you live. These include: schools, social care (support for people), parks and dustbin collection.
. It helps to pay for things like social care (support for people), parks and dustbin collection.
.
people should pay and how things like the National Health
Service
A service gives people what they need, like healthcare services that help people when they are ill, and support services that give people support.
(
NHS
The NHS is the National Health Service. The NHS gives free healthcare to everyone in the UK and includes things like your GP (doctors) surgery and hospitals.
) should work.
has for what it will spend money on and how it will raise money to pay for the spending. The Budget tells us if there will be any changes to how much people pay for things.
and Spending Review yesterday was painted by the Chancellor as a plan for a ‘new age of optimism’. But what strikes me most, but not unexpectedly, is the failure to ‘level up’ social care by providing the funding that the sector so desperately needs now.
The planned reforms are welcome but until we see the sector properly invested in, little is going to change.
Social care is the poor cousin of the NHS, treated as an afterthought, with funding in past years being relegated to one off grants and Council Tax increases. The announcement of an increase to grant funding to local authorities is welcome, but the money has not been ring-fenced to fund social care and this leaves local authorities facing incredibly tough decisions about where to allocate funding. There are thousands of people across the country waiting for their care needs to be assessed. Maybe it’s time to start publishing waiting list statistics as we do with the NHS.
I had hoped that this pattern had begun to shift with the announcement of £5.4bn over three years to be generated from the Health and Social Care levy. It is a large number but without context it is meaningless. For example, over half of the funds pledged will go towards funding the implications of the new cap and making the way care is funded fairer for those who currently contribute towards the costs of their care and support. The cap has little if no effect on people with a
learning disability
A learning disability is to do with the way someone's brain works. It makes it harder for someone to learn, understand or do things.
. It will do little to address the un-met need as a result of the reductions in care we have seen during the pandemic or prepare the sector for a rising demand for care, or stop people with a learning disability receiving large bills to pay for their care and support costs which were once funded by the state.
The picture becomes even more stark when you start to compare the £5.4bn to the amount that is needed right now – today. A Health Foundation recent report estimates that to meet future demand, improve access to care, and increase workforce pay, the sector would need £7.1bn in 2021/22. Combining the money raised by the levy and the announcement from the Treasury the funding for local authorities will amount to £3.4bn for 2021/22, far short of the funding needed.
Discussing funding and talking about the ‘sector’ can seem abstract. We must remember that at the heart of any social care system there are real people, doing their best to live rich and fulfilling lives despite their disability or life-long condition. They are the reason I’m so disappointed in the Budget and Spending Review.
I hope that as we move forward with discussions on reform with the UK Government, and alongside people with a learning disability and their families, we can get to a place where the provision of social care is valued equally with the work of the NHS. Reforming the system cannot take place without a conversation with those who require care and support. ‘Fixing social care’ is increasingly becoming just another government sound bite – please don’t let that happen.