According to Sir Merrick Cockell, 2015-16 will be ‘the crunch year’ when it comes to securing funding for much needed services across the council and the NHS.
The chairman of the Local Government Association has claimed that councils and the NHS need an extra £2bn “transformation fund” to help integrate services across the board.
Sir Merrick Cockell said the additional funding was something that was needed on top of the outstanding £3.8bn Better Care Fund project, which plans to bring together health and social care services. He also requested for the fund to become a five-year commitment, rather than just for the year that it is officially scheduled to last.
Cockell said at a recent conference organised by the King’s Fund think-tank in London that a transformation fund would “ease the short term disruption to residents and to patients”, and that it would have to be a significant amount of extra money, with figures estimated to be around the £2bn mark.
Funds of That Size Carry a Significant Risk
Regarding the £3.8bn Better Care Fund, Cockell’s felt confident going forward, calling it “our best answer to the questions asked of us in these testing times.”
The Better Care Fund relies on pooled funding from local authorities and the NHS, with the intention of reducing pressure on hospitals by providing more care and support in people’s homes.
However, Chris Hopson, the chief executive of the Foundation Trust Network, told delegates at the conference that the fund carries significant risks. While commenting that it is a “fantastic prompt in terms of bringing people together”, Hopson said the fund was not an investment.
“It is £1.9bn less across the NHS and local government than what we are currently spending in 2014-15, so that carries risks,” he said.
The fund is set to launch in April 2015, and Cockell described the next year as “the crunch year in all respects” adding that “we simply can’t fall apart in that year”.
With figures totalling nearly £6bn it is easy to see why some would be sceptical about such a huge fund, regardless of whether it is viewed as an investment or not.
If funding can be acquired then there will definitely be a lot of expectations that need to be met in order to justify such large figures, if the funding does not prove to be successful then it could severely hinder the chances of such funding being given again in the future on similar council and NHS related projects.
What do you think about the plan to improve health and social care funding and do you feel that the £2bn figure is justifiable?
Please let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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