The District Councils’ Network has responded to the timetable announced for social care reform by the Government today.
A review will be set up, led by Baroness Louise Casey, which will publish final proposals in 2028 for the creation of a National Care Service. It is not yet known when meaningful reform will be implemented or what its exact nature will be.
This comes after the Government announced on 16 December proposals to reorganise local government – the sector which currently oversees social care.
Under the Government’s plans which impact upon a swathe of England covering 20 million people, county councils, which run social care, will be merged with district councils, which run services including waste collection, housing, planning, economic growth and leisure centres. This will create vast unitary councils covering a population of at least half a million people.
In response to the social care reform proposals, Cllr Sam Chapman-Allen, Chairman of the District Councils’ Network, said:
“It is odd that the Government is rushing into the reorganisation of local government to create vast new councils before it decides whether the biggest and most costly service run by the sector should remain run by councils or be moved into a National Care Service.
“A local government which oversees social services, which are often perceived to depend heavily on economies of scale, should surely look very different to one that does not.
“The danger is that we build a system of local government which is remote from communities with much of any rationale for creating mega councils immediately being superseded by the creation of the National Care Service.
“The form of local government should reflect its function, not vice versa.
“The timetable of the Casey Review demonstrates that social care’s crippling financial problems will not be resolved any time soon. It is likely that when local government is reorganised, new unitary councils will be left with little choice but to shift budgets from valuable universal services including housing, economic development, leisure centres and waste collection to fund growing social care costs.”
You can read more of DCN’s reaction to the Devolution White Paper, which proposed the reorganisation of local government, in our December press release here.
