{"id":71800,"date":"2016-06-30T09:18:51","date_gmt":"2016-06-30T09:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=c979a8b39568ce97ceae79f9cd7d6a63"},"modified":"2016-06-30T09:18:51","modified_gmt":"2016-06-30T09:18:51","slug":"press-release-new-stats-show-councils-prioritising-adult-social-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=71800","title":{"rendered":"Press release: New stats show councils prioritising adult social care"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Official statistics released today (30 June 2016) show that councils are planning to invest an extra \u00a3308 million this year on adult social care services.<\/p>\n<p>Councils are upping their spending by 2.2% to \u00a314.4 billion this year \u2013 thanks to a new revenue raising flexibility introduced at the historic local government finance settlement.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time council taxes are staying down, with average bills set to be less in real terms in 2020 than they were in 2010.<\/p>\n<p>Communities Secretary Greg Clark said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>At a time when local authorities are playing their part in paying down the deficit, more than \u00a3300 million extra will be invested this year to deliver high-quality adult social care services.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">Councils will have almost \u00a3200 billion to spend on services over the lifetime of this Parliament and I\u2019m pleased the vast majority are also making use of new flexibilities to prioritise the services people really care about.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2 id=\"delivering-quality-services\">Delivering quality services<\/h2>\n<p>Local authorities are working hard to deliver a better deal for local taxpayers by keeping costs down whilst maintaining public satisfaction with services.<\/p>\n<p>At a time when the public sector is playing its part in paying down the deficit, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/statistics\/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing-england-2016-to-2017-budget\">local authority revenue expenditure and financing 2016 to 2017 budget statistics<\/a> show local authorities plan to increase overall spending on:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>children\u2019s and families social care services \u2013 up \u00a3136 million<\/li>\n<li>police services \u2013 up \u00a3143 million<\/li>\n<li>public health services \u2013 up \u00a3175 million<\/li>\n<li>adult social care \u2013 up \u00a3308 million<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As part of the long-term local government finance settlement councils have almost \u00a3200 billion to spend on services over the lifetime of this Parliament including an extra \u00a33.5 billion available for care of the elderly and vulnerable.<\/p>\n<p>This is over and above the \u00a32.9 billion identified as needed in October 2015 by the Local Government Association.<\/p>\n<p>Up to \u00a32 billion will come from the new flexibility to introduce a 2% \u2018social care precept\u2019 \u2013 the equivalent of \u00a323 a year on an average Band D home in 2016 to 2017 \u2013 to provide dedicated caring for the growing elderly population.  Already the vast majority of local authorities are using this new flexibility.<\/p>\n<p>A further \u00a31.5 billion will be available to councils to work with the NHS to ensure that care is available for older and vulnerable people, including following hospital treatment through the Better Care Fund.<\/p>\n<p>By the end of this decade councils will also be self-sufficient \u2013 funded from revenues they raise locally, rather than central government grants. This will give them control over an additional \u00a313 billion of tax revenues.<\/p>\n<p>For a 3-year period from the 1 April 2016, local authorities are also able to spend any revenues they generate from selling surplus assets \u2013 like property or shares and bonds \u2013 to fund the costs of improvements to essential services.<\/p>\n<p>The statistics show that already local authorities are planning on raising over \u00a380 million to invest in transforming services.<\/p>\n<div class=\"contact postal-address\" id=\"contact_40\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h3>Office address and general enquiries<\/h3>\n<div class=\"vcard contact-inner\">\n<p class=\"adr\">\n<span class=\"street-address\">2 Marsham Street<br \/>\n<br \/>\nLondon<\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"postal-code\">SW1P 4DF<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"email-url-number\">\n<p class=\"contact_form_url\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Contact form<\/span><br \/>\n              <a href=\"http:\/\/forms.communities.gov.uk\/\">http:\/\/forms.communiti&#8230;<\/a>\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">General enquiries:  please use this number if you are a member of the public<\/span><br \/>\n              030 3444 0000\n            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"contact \" id=\"contact_171\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h3>Media enquiries<\/h3>\n<div class=\"vcard contact-inner\">\n<div class=\"email-url-number\">\n<p class=\"email\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Email<\/span><br \/>\n              <a class=\"email\" href=\"mailto:press.office@communities.gsi.gov.uk\">press.office@communities.gsi.gov.uk<\/a>\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Please use this number if you&#8217;re a journalist wishing to speak to Press Office<\/span><br \/>\n              030 3444 1201\n            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Councils are planning to invest an extra \u00a3308 million this year on adult social care services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71800"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71800\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}