Council responds to extra funding announced by Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

Shropshire Council has today responded to the announcement made by the Rt Hon Matt Hancock MP, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on the additional £240m funding for social care to help ease winter pressure on hospitals.

Matt Hancock MP says the money will be used to pay for care in the community and free up hospital beds for people who need them most.

Lee Chapman, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for adult services, health and social housing, said:

“We welcome the funding to help support the vital work we do supporting people on discharge from hospital. The role we play in helping people to remain independent at home and avoid hospital admissions, is equally important if we are to reduce the pressures on our acute hospitals.

“In Shropshire our elderly population is accelerating at a much faster rate than the English average. On top of this, providing care for people living in rural areas like ours is more difficult to arrange and more expensive because of the distances involved.

“We have not yet had details of how much Shropshire’s share of this funding will be, but would urge the Government to consider our demographic and geographic challenges. It is unfortunate that the current social care and public health funding formula doesn’t sufficiently take these factors into consideration, which leaves Shropshire in a much poorer situation than many local councils.

“Any financial support is very welcome but a long term sustainable solution for funding social care and public health is long overdue. We are looking forward to the results of the current review of the Government’s funding formula, and we will continue to push hard for a bigger long term share of central government funding.”

Link to Local Government Association report.