The Local Government Association (LGA) has cautioned that councils will have to continue to divert money from other local services, such as parks and leisure budgets, in order to plug growing social care funding gaps.
The association says that planned council tax rises of up to 4 per cent will not be enough to offset the 28 per cent (£2.7bn) reduction in core government funding to councils for 2016/17, due to the added expense to councils of the forthcoming National Living Wage.
As a result, it says that social care shortfalls will continue, meaning councils will have to carry on reallocating money from other local services – including maintaining our parks and green spaces and running children's centres, leisure centres and libraries – to cover the gap.
The LGA has previously warned that social care services for disabled and elderly care face a
nationwide funding shortfall of £4.3bn by 2020 as councils grapple with austerity cuts and an ageing population. It said that ‘non-essential’ services such as leisure would likely suffer as a result.
"Councils will continue to do all they can to maintain the services that older and vulnerable people rely on but services supporting the elderly and disabled are at breaking point,” said Nick Forbes, LGA vice chair. “It cannot be left to council taxpayers alone to try and fix them."
A recent report from the Chief Cultural & Leisure Officers Association (CLOA) highlighted the strain on leisure budgets as local authorities continue to grapple austerity. It noted that a combination of greater commercialisation of services and willingness to pursue alternative funding streams have so far been key in helping to largely stave off the impact of funding cuts.
However, it warned that continued cuts to local authorities’ cultural and leisure budgets could undermine the health and wellbeing of communities and add to the skills and experience gaps young people are currently facing.
