Spring Budget 2017: Extra social care funding doesn't address long term challenges, expert says

The chancellor has, however, pledged to publish a 'green paper' setting out strategic options for the long-term funding and reform of social care in England later this year. These options will not include a 'death tax', or increases to inheritance tax to recoup care costs after somebody dies, he said.

The new funding will be made available to local authorities in England over the next three years, with £1 billion available for new care packages in 2017/18, the chancellor said.

Healthcare expert Joanne Ellis of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that the longer term challenges raised by the UK's ageing population had to be addressed urgently.

"As expected, the chancellor has felt the need to show he has listened to the growing number of councils, operators and MPs who have highlighted the continued shortfall in social care funding leading to unsustainable fee levels and consequential reduction in choice, particularly in poorer areas," she said.

"This is a sticking plaster but, presumably as a result of Brexit and continuing fiscal uncertainty, it does not address the need for long-term funding and reform. Proposals for a green paper to set out how to put the social care system on a more secure and sustainable long-term footing feel yet again as if social care reform is being kicked down the road while more pressing issues take precedence," she said.

"There will never be a good time to tackle how best to care for the most vulnerable in our society, but at some point someone needs to realise that this has become the number one priority for the health and fabric of our country," she said.

In his Budget speech this week, chancellor of the exchequer Philip Hammond said that the social care system was "clearly under pressure". Over a million people currently receive some kind of social care in England, and the number of people aged 75 or over is projected to increase by two million in the next ten years, he said.

"This in turn puts pressure on our NHS," he said.

Local authorities will be expected to use the £2bn in additional funding for programmes that ensure that elderly people receive the care they need in the community after being discharged from hospital, thereby freeing up NHS beds. Local authorities will be expected to work 3with the NHS to consider how the money should be spent, and to "ensure that best practice is implemented more consistently across the country", according to the Budget document.

To accompany the new funding, the health and communities secretaries will announce "targeted measures" to improve and speed up transfers of care between the NHS and social care services in the coming weeks, the chancellor said.

The chancellor also announced an additional £100 million for NHS hospitals in England, to be used to fund up to 100 new 'triage' projects at accident and emergency (A&E) departments in time for next winter. These projects will be aimed at reducing "inappropriate A&E attendances" and relieving pressure on hospitals, he said.