Government shifts Care Act cash from self-funder to carer assessments

The government has reallocated funding to implement the Care Act from assessments of self-funders to those of carers, it announced today.

Planned funding to resource the assessment of self-funders who want to take advantage of the cap on their care costs will fall from £175m to £146m in 2015-16, while government investment for the act’s deferred payments scheme will fall from £108.5m to £83.5m.

The £55.5m released by these changes will fund a new Carers and Care Act Implementation Grant, mostly to meet the demands of the reduced threshold for assessments and right to support for carers that the act introduces. Just over £20m of this new grant will cover general pressures arising from Care Act implementation based on the government changing its initial assumption that the act will result in savings for councils from the reforming the law in 2015-16.

The changes were set out today in the government’s response to a consultation on its allocation of funding to implement the act. They are based on detailed work with 120 councils to assess the costs of implementing different parts of the Care Act, coordinated by the DH, the Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services.

Overall, the government will be investing £470m in implementing the Care Act in 2015-16. Besides the sums set out above, this comprises:

• £185m to support general implementation, including £50m of capital funding, channelled through the Better Care Fund, the new integrated budget across health and social care;
• £11.2m to fund social care support in prisons.