Updates from LGA 

July 2022

Adult social care: ADASS survey 

The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) has published its Spring survey. The report warns that the rapidly rising cost of basic things is making already challenging conditions in social care much worse. It also warns that the year ahead will be the most challenging adult social care and the people needing and working in it have ever faced. Almost three-quarters of social care directors responding to the survey reported increasing requests for support and 82 per cent reported increased referrals of people discharged from hospital. In the LGA’s response, they highlighted that the scale of the problems that need to be addressed in adult social care cannot be understated, and the instability of the current market, with so much unmet need and fragile financial situations, needs urgent support from the Government.
 

June 2022

Overseas recruitment in social care

The LGA has launched a bite size guide to overseas recruitment for social care providers in England. The guide sets out the benefits and walks employers through the resources needed, legal requirements, cost, how long it takes and how to ensure successful recruitment. It also draws on real life examples from providers. While this is written for providers in England, it may be relevant to other parts of the UK.

For further information email amanda.whittaker-brown@local.gov.uk.

From the LGA

Independent Review of Children’s Social Care

The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care published its final report. The review took a fundamental look at the needs, experiences and outcomes of the children supported by social services, taking into account the sustainability of local services and effective use of resources. The report calls for a reset of children’s social care so it can act decisively in response to abuse, support families in crisis and ensure those in care have lifelong loving relationships and homes.

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January 2022

Vaccination of workers in social care settings

The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) published guidance to support the implementation of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in wider social care settings, including home care, extra care housing and supported living. This means that from April 1, social care providers registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) must ensure that anyone they employ or engage to carry out direct and face-to-face CQC-regulated social care activities meets the vaccination requirements. DHSC has also produced a care home vaccination toolkit.

November 2021

Digital Resource Centre for adult social care

Our Care and Health Improvement Programme is pleased to announce the launch of its new Digital Resource Centre, which aims to support councils to adopt digital tools and solutions in adult social care. This platform will be the home of all co-produced content, support tools and case studies which emerge from the 21/22 CHIP Digital Support Programme.

Children’s and adult social care spending

As part of the launch of the National Children and Adult Services Conference, we warned that children’s and social care services could fail to support everyone they need to. This is despite funding for both services making up nearly two-thirds of councils’ total spending due to rising demand. Our new analysis showed that social care authorities are spending more than 60 per cent of their outgoings on these vital services. We said serious questions remain about whether the expected £5.4 billion from the new Health and Care Levy over the next three years will be enough to pay for the recently announced adult social care reforms. We also highlighted the spiralling demand on children’s social services and future cost pressures in children’s social care, which are set to increase by an estimated £600 million a year until 2024/25, with many councils finding themselves in the unsustainable position of consistently having to overspend their children’s services budgets.

Adult social care white paper

This week we published our four priorities for the adult social care white paper. They focus on ensuring the principles of the landmark Care Act are central to reform; the need for immediate investment to deal with current pressures; providing clarity on how the reform programme will be funded and committing to realism and co-production. The white paper is a chance for the Government to publish a vision for the future that is ambitious, people-centred and forward thinking so that social care can best support people and communities. This work follows on from the briefing we published outlining the LGA’s response to the Government’s ‘Build Back Better: Our plan for health and social care’ plan and our podcast on adult social care which analysed what the announced reforms mean for councils and wider society.

Adult Social Care Winter Plan  

Building on last year’s adult social care coronavirus (COVID-19) winter plan, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has published its 2021 to 2022 plan. This year’s plan sets out national support available to the social care sector, alongside the principal actions that councils, NHS organisations and social care providers across all settings in England should take.  

Adult Social Care National Recruitment Campaign 

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has launched its adult social care recruitment campaign. The ‘Made with Care’ campaign will run across broadcast and social media for the next five months encouraging people to join the adult social care workforce and help fill more than 105,000 current vacancies.   

COVID-19 testing for adult social care settings   

The COVID-19 guidance for testing staff, residents and visitors for all adult social care settings has now been updated by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to include a guide for assisted on-site testing with rapid lateral flow tests (LFTs).   

August 2021

Children’s homes 

Your Director of Children’s Services should have received information last week about the new DfE Children’s Homes Capital Programme 2021/23. This £19.5 million programme will provide capital funding on a match funded basis for councils to expand children’s home provision and establish innovative approaches to reducing the number of children needing care over time. The LGA called for capital funding for children’s homes in its Spending Review 2020 submission and we will continue to make the case for further support to ensure children in care have the homes they need. 

Monday 19 July 2021

Respite care and day services 

Care Minister, Helen Whately joined the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) webinar this week to discuss the number of bottle necks in adult social care services caused by the pandemic, particularly people reporting limited access to respite care and day services. The Minister stressed that the Infection Control Fund could be used to support the safe reopening of day services and urged councils to try and encourage residents to come back to day services. 

ADASS Spring Survey   

Just over a fifth of directors of adult social care say they are fully confident that their budget will be sufficient for them to meet their statutory duties this year, according to the annual survey by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS). The results also suggest almost 75,000 people and carers are waiting for help with their care and support. This ADASS report is another stark reminder of the mounting pressures facing social care, which will impact on older and disabled people and their carers. As we stress in our media response, COVID-19 has reinforced the urgent need for long-term reform of adult social care, including sustainable funding which grows in line with demand, as well as investment to tackle the funding gap between the cost of providing care and what councils pay. 

Child obesity    

Public Health England has published new local authority child obesity slide sets,presenting key data and information on the patterns and trends in child obesity prevalence using data from the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) for each upper tier local authority in England. The slides are a useful tool for practitioners and policy makers working on obesity at local, regional and national level. They can be used in presentations to health and wellbeing boards, other committees and to elected members as well as at conference and workshop presentations.  

National Food Strategy   

The National Food Strategy, an independent report commissioned by the Government, is calling for a sugar and salt reformulation tax to cut their use in products and curb obesity, strokes and heart disease. The review, led by food entrepreneur Henry Dimbleby, says money raised by the tax should be spent on expanding free school meals to another 1.1 million children who need them, funding holiday activity and food clubs, and supporting healthier diets for those in the most deprived communities. 

Health Incentives Programme   

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is inviting directors of public health and local authority obesity and physical activity networks to join a webinar on Thursday 22 July with its Health Incentives Team between 11am – 11.45am. DHSC is keen to pilot the health incentives public health approach to supporting people to make healthier choices and live healthier lives by providing incentives and rewards for healthy behaviours. We would encourage councils to attend if at all possible as local government engagement will ensure these pilots are aligned with local knowledge and priorities and take a whole system approach.   

To register for this session please contact healthincentives@dhsc.gov.uk. Local authorities can also use this address to express an interest in hosting the pilot in your area. The deadline for expressions of interest is Friday 6 August.  

Children’s services spending   

Council spending on early support for vulnerable children has almost halved in real terms over the past decade, according to new research commissioned by Action for Children, Barnardo’s, The Children’s Society, National Children’s Bureau and NSPCC. Its report found that, according to Department for Education collections, government funding available to councils for children’s services fell by 24 per cent from £9.9 billion to £7.5 billion in real terms between 2010/11 and 2019/20. As a result, local authorities in England have reduced spending on early intervention services from £3.6 billion to £1.8 billion between 2010 and 2020.   

We continue to call for government to invest in early intervention support so councils can help children and families earlier, rather than waiting for problems to reach crisis point. 

Early years staff wellbeing resource    The Anna Freud Centre, having surveyed early years staff and worked closely with a range of local authorities, has published a toolkit for supporting early years staff with their wellbeing. It includes a range of practical tips and ideas on championing staff wellbeing, and an activity checklist to understand the progress that is being made.