SIGOMA Chair warns about winter pressures for social care

Posted on August 03, 2024

Councillor Stephen Houghton, the Labour leader of Barnsley council and the chairman of the Sigoma group of mainly northern and urban English authorities, told i: “We need more funding in the system. Adult and children’s social care are both under serious pressure and as we get to winter in particular with older people that is going to become more intense.”

The funding squeeze was also beginning to cause a “postcode lottery” between councils in wealthier and less advantaged areas, he said.

The big issue of the last few years is that we are being asked to provide that funding [for social care] through council tax, that is a huge problem because we have different council tax bases from which to pool that service from.

“A 5 per cent increase in council tax in Wokingham is going to raise twice as much as that same increase in Barnsley. But also the biggest needs for social care are in the poorest areas.”

Cllr Houghton said that councils would not be told what their Whitehall funding settlements were until December, two months after the Budget, meaning there is less certainty to plan ahead to fund services.

“We are trying to forecast our spending while doing that in the dark,” he said.

Read the full article in the i, here.