Dimensions response to the Autumn Budget

The budget is alarming for not-for-profit providers like Dimensions because it will put us under pressure to meet the increases in tax costs for our workforce.

Employers’ national insurance contributions will increase by 1.2% from April next year. In addition to this, the reduction in the lower limit earnings from £9k to £5k will mean we will need to pay this tax for an additional 4,000 staff. Our initial analysis indicates the extra cost of these changes for us to be £5 million next year.

In addition to this, the National Living Wage will increase by 6.7% to £12.21 per hour next April increasing the wage bill by £10.2 million for Dimensions.

The NHS has received a huge amount of funding – £21bn over 2 years – compared to a mere £600m split between Children’s and Adult Social Care in the upcoming local government statement. This won’t be enough to cover the increases in employers’ national insurance contributions and the national living wage which will hit us hard.

We will be reliant on uplifts from local government commissioners to pay for these increases in staff costs. A £15 million increase in workforce costs represents a 6% increase in fees before we allow for other inflationary pressures.  From what we can see the budget does not provide the extra funding local authorities will need to support the required fee uplifts.

This won’t help us to recruit more staff. This has an impact on the people who draw on support who value knowing the person who is supporting them, and this is important for them to lead a good life. This only comes with paying and valuing staff properly.

Dimensions CEO, Rachael Dodgson said:

It is very clear that the actions taken in this budget do not match the rhetoric from the Health and Social Care team at DHSC since the election about the shift to prevention and the need to fix the social care sector.

In phase two of the public spending review, the government has identified several areas for reform including children’s social care by “fixing the broken care market” but adult social care isn’t included in this list. This only adds to speculation about the prospect of a Royal Commission for social care, we need action and intervention now, rather than more promises of tomorrow.