The Chancellor delivered his Autumn Statement on 22 November, setting out plans to support businesses and get more people into work, and to invest in infrastructure and levelling up.
There were some welcome announcements on housing and homelessness – not least, to increase Local Housing Allowance rates, provide another round of the Local Authority Housing Fund, and continue for a third year the monthly £500 ‘thank you’ payments to those incredible people who continue to host new arrivals in their homes under the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
It is helpful the Government is continuing to respond in a more joined up way to pressing housing needs across all the schemes that cater for new arrivals to the UK.
Disappointingly, though, there was no additional funding announced for children’s services nor adult social care, despite the financial pressures both are facing.
Spiralling costs in children’s social care are a key driver of budget pressures across councils with social care responsibilities.
As we highlighted in our Autumn Statement submission, additional investment in children’s services would enable councils to reduce demand and stabilise placements, bringing down pressures and improving outcomes for children.
While the additional funding for adult social care provided in the 2022 Autumn Statement is welcome, it is far from sufficient to resolve the pressures services face now – not least, from rising demand and costs, and workforce recruitment and retention.
The National Living Wage increases announced in this year’s Autumn Statement will help with the latter, but social care providers will likely expect to see their increased wage costs reflected in the fees councils pay.
This will pose a significant additional pressure on adult social care budgets, which are already considered by many directors to be insufficient to meet all statutory duties. The LGA will continue to lobby on your behalf for additional resources.