Ring-fencing remains the difficult question for social care. At the National Children and Adult Services Conference in Harrogate the thorny issue of the £150m funding for the dementia strategy - what some people describe as the "missing £150m". Care Services minister Phil Hope assured the audience that it was there in primary care trust budgets but that it wasn't ring-fenced because "PCTs and local government didn't want ring-fencing".
Next up was shadow health minister Andrew Landsley. The would-be secretary of state for public health promised new local public health boards drawing on both PCTs and local authorities looking after public health, social care and housing and drawing on, yes, ring-fenced budgets.
Whatever happens in the general election it is clear that it will not only make a difference to what is funded in social care but how that funding is distributed.
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