DH acknowledges that resources are key to deliver adult reforms

The Department of Health has “heard loud and clear” the message from social care that it needs more resources to meet existing and future service demands and properly reward staff.

Launching an analysis of consultation responses to the adult green paper, national director for social care Kathryn Hudson told the National Social Services Conference today that inadequate funding had been a recurring theme.

She said: “We have not lost that message. We heard it loud and clear.”

The report gives the clearest indication yet that the DH will lobby strongly for extra resources for social care in the 2007 spending review.

In a foreword, care services minister Liam Byrne says responses to the green paper have focussed on the inadequacy of existing funding, the cost of a shift to preventive services and the problems of recruiting and retaining staff on existing pay rates.

He adds: “The responses to this consultation provide invaluable evidence to inform our work for the next spending review.”