County Council urges Government to publish Adult Social Care Green Paper

Democracy and Local Affairs, Health and Social Care
Lin Hazell, Buckinghamshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing. Image courtesy Bucks County Council.

Buckinghamshire County Council is to urge the Government to publish its delayed Green Paper on Adult Social Care, with Leader Martin Tett saying the increasing pressures on budgets is “an existential threat to this council and others across the country.”

A motion to write to the Government on the issue was passed unanimously at a meeting of Full Council today (Thu 20 Sept) with full cross-party support.

The meeting heard from the Local Government Association, which has produced its own Green Paper on Adult Social Care, saying that “the continued absence of a sustainable, long-term solution has brought care and support to breaking point.”

Councillors unanimously supported a motion to write to the Government to urge it to:

  • Publish the long-awaited Green Paper on Adult Social Care
  • Include a range of credible options for improving resourcing of the sector
  • Acknowledge the unique and invaluable position of local government in delivering social care in partnership with the NHS

Speaking as she seconded the motion, Lin Hazell, Buckinghamshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing said:

“What we need from Government is the support to deliver Adult Social Care. We need to understand the direction of travel as we continue to deliver these services and set our budgets. We need to know how we will be managing things for the future.”

Summing up, Martin Tett said:

“When you look at the pressures that councils like ourselves face, Children’s and Adult Social Care are swallowing up the rest of our budgets for all the other services we provide like waste collection, highways, libraries, and so on.

Fundamentally, there has to be more money in the system and it’s got to come from somewhere. I don’t underestimate how difficult this is, but this is now urgent. This is about real people and how their lives are being impacted and I urge the Government to act quickly.”

To read the LGA’s Green Paper on Adult Social Care and to find out more go towww.futureofadultsocialcare.co.uk