Local government leaders call for long-term funding to beat bed-blocking

Local government leaders have warned that huge pressure on budgets will put social care services in 'serious jeopardy unless substantial, immediate and long-term financial investment is made'.

A survey by the Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Social Services, published this week, reveals that local authorities are heading for a projected£218m overspend on social services.

And it warns that the extra£200m allocated by the government to tackle bed-blocking in 2002-03, will create a£159m 'knock-on' requirement for the following year, which is currently unfunded.

'Longer-term certainty about this funding is vital if the investment is to achieve sustainable improvements and reduced levels of delays in discharges from hospitals. This is critical not just to the quality of care for older people, but for the government's targets for the NHS, ' the survey report says.

The survey points to spending on children's services as the main factor pushing social services into the red, accounting for 68 per cent of the overspend.

LGA chair Sir Jeremy Beecham warned that continuing pressure on social services budgets would 'feed back into bed-blocking'.

ADSS president Mike Leadbetter said there was 'an inbalance between what we can do and what the NHS expects us to do'.