The local government settlement proposes £515m to cover the cost of increases to employer National Insurance for directly employed Council staff.
Sadly it has not recognised the potentially existential impact of NI increases on social care providers.
At Dimensions, one of the largest not-for-profit social care providers, the combined impact of Employer National Insurance increases and the National Living Wage uplift will add over £16 million annually to our costs – set against a surplus last year of £1m. That is roughly a month’s worth of currently unfunded care. Every support provider I’ve spoken to is in the same position.
The people we support with learning disabilities and autistic people receive statutory support, meaning local government has no choice but to fund this. What will give? Libraries? Bin collections? Parks? We’re all in this together, whether provider or commissioner, but we all rely upon central government to deliver adequate funding settlements.
In the long term will we see councils having their hand forced to return to commissioning large scale institutional support for the people we currently support to live ordinary lives in their local communities? Unless the Treasury takes this seriously, now, we risk passing a tipping point. I urge the government not to gamble on whether that tipping point will be reached. People’s lives depend upon it.
Rachael Dodgson, CEO