Calls for national social care funding as costs cripple Cheshire East

Labour, Conservative and Independent councillors on Cheshire East's adults and health committee all seemed to agree successive governments had avoided dealing with the problem.

During a meeting yesterday (Monday), when members were discussing how to address this year’s forecast service overspend of £20.7m, Cllr Ken Edwards (Bollington, Lab) said: “This council, as a whole, needs to work hard to agitate at the national level to get a decent care system in place, which works and does not cut other services that are desperately needed out there in our localities.”

Cllr Ken Edwards (Image: Cheshire East Council) He said about 40 per cent of the council’s budget went on adult social care.

Conservative group leader Janet Clowes, who had been a previous portfolio holder for adult social care when the Tories ran the council before 2019, said: “It [adult social care] has always experienced pressures, although nothing like what we are seeing over the last couple of years, worse even, I think, than during covid.”

She said government putting money only into the NHS had knock-on effects for social care.

“We have never been able to get that message across. It's all about the NHS. You never hear about social care, and it really annoys me, and that has got to change,” said Cllr Clowes.

Cllr Janet Clowes (Image: Cheshire East Council) “And I absolutely agree with you [Cllr Edwards], we should be lobbying the new government for a change of approach.

“Let's focus on social care first. Let's get people out of care. Let's not actually get them into hospital in the first place.

“If we can do that through our public health teams and our social care teams, maybe we wouldn't need the NHS as much.”

Cllr Arthur Moran (Image: Cheshire East Council) Nantwich councillor Arthur Moran ( Ind) said: “The funding of adult social care was promised to be fixed. ‘I'll fix it’ - I remember one ex-prime minister saying that. It wasn't fixed.

“The only fix we got was the fact that we were allowed to increase our council tax by an extra two per cent up to 4.99 per cent. I'm afraid to say, that didn't fix it.”

Cllr Anna Burton (Nantwich, Lab) said Labour is ‘absolutely committed to a national care service’.

“The national care service is definitely something that's on the agenda,” she said, pointing out Labour had only been in government for 80 days.

“It might not be immediate, it might be over the next few years, but there's definitely things in place.”