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The government was warned it risks marginalising social care and seeing it as a "rescue service" rather than as a means to ensure the overall wellbeing of communities, writes Amy Taylor.

Alison King, chairperson of the Local Government Association social affairs and health executive, said that local authorities have a duty to promote social, economic and environmental wellbeing, and that the stance of local authorities which locate their social care performance in the context of local well-being should not be lost.

"It would be a tragedy if this vision - this breadth of approach - were allowed to be damaged irremediably by a narrow government interpretation of social care as some sort of blue light rescue service - on the margins of the NHS or education," she told the National Social Services Conference.

King went on to criticise the government in light of ministers' recent comments about local authorities decisions to raise council tax. "We have never yet found that taking cheap shots, or attributing blame to the people you rely on to deliver the goods, is the most effective way to deliver your outcomes."

She instead called for "a closer, continuing dialogue" with government about the way money is allocated to councils and their abilities to raised more funds locally.