Adults' Social Services Expenditure Survey 2008-2009

The LGA, in partnership with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), has commissioned a survey of local authority adult social services departments in England to:

• identify 2008-2009 budget and expenditure forecasts;
• examine in more detail the elements of expenditure and pressures on budget;
• examine the resources available to deliver social care services to vulnerable adults;
• build a more accurate picture of the impact of the economic slowdown on adult social care services.

The survey updates the 2007-2008 survey, which was covered in the national media, specialist media, including Community Care magazine, and has been used by Age Concern (for national briefings), CSCI (in its recent report on eligibility criteria) and the Audit Commission (where it is now regarded as an important and authoritative source of evidence on total social care spend).

It also features in numerous council reports on social care funding, enables authorities to benchmark themselves against the national picture; and will feed into work the LGA is conducting for its campaign on adults’ social services funding.

Some of the main findings are summarised below:

• In 2007-08 local authorities, on average, underspent their outturn Personal Social Services (PSS) budget by £0.10m, equivalent to 0.1 per cent of budget.
• In 2008-09, authorities were forecasting (at the time the survey was completed) an average overspend of £0.09m, or 0.1 per cent.
• For the 2008-2009 financial year, 73 per cent of authorities set Fair Access to Care bands at substantial, with the remainder at moderate (27 per cent).
• Local authorities spent £294.2m in 2007-08 on adult social care that people can access without a formal assessment, or without meeting eligibility criteria. This equates to around £1.98m per authority.
• The most significant area in terms of both demand/volume and unit cost/complexity cost pressures is care home placements for people with learning disabilities.
• A large majority of authorities (84 per cent) indicated facing additional costs (in 2009-2010) as a result of demographic change, equating to an average of £1.715m per authority. 
• Across all authorities, it is estimated that £379.1m has already been saved through increased efficiency in relation to six areas of potential efficiency identified by the Care Services Efficiency Delivery team, with by far the largest savings generated in the area of better purchasing/procurement (£172m).
• Authorities estimated that there is still around £281.6m to be saved, an average of £1.9m per authority.  Again, the area of greatest saving is forecast to be better purchasing/procurement, which authorities estimate will account for 41 per cent of future savings.
• The most common effect of the economic slowdown on authorities to date is a reduction in the supply of services as independent care homes close (by 14.7 per cent of authorities), closely followed by an increased demand for welfare advice services.  Looking forward, upwards of two-thirds of authorities anticipated experiencing each of the suggested effects.
• In 2008/09 local authorities contributed £2,074m to Section 31 and 28a pooled budgets for adults and older people, an average of £13.83m per authority.

Adult Social Services Expenditure Survey 2008-09 - report (PDF, 40 pages, 320KB)

Date: April 2009

Contact: stephen.richards@lga.gov.uk 

Telephone: 020 7664 3256