Stuart Anderson MP calls for fairer social care funding in South Shropshire
Stuart Anderson MP is calling for fairer funding for social care in rural areas like South Shropshire. Stuart made the intervention as part of a debate in the House of Commons on Tuesday, 5th November 2024. The debate focused on key measures announced in the Autumn Budget, which was delivered by the Chancellor on Wednesday, 30th October.
The Budget included an extra £22.6 billion for health and social care, including to reduce waiting times with an extra 40,000 elective appointments. It also allocated £600 million for social care. Yet, concerns have been raised that this amount will not keep pace with demand. Questions have also been raised about how this will be allocated, with rural areas being home to more older residents than urban ones. In Stuart’s constituency, for example, over 31% of residents are aged 65 and over.
Stuart’s call for the fairer allocation of funding follows reports that Shropshire Council’s spending on social care has increased from 58% to 74% over the last six years. As reported by the County Councils Network (CCN), increased costs associated with adult social care accounts for 83% of the £54 billion shortfall being faced by local authorities in England.
Stuart’s intervention also comes as the National Care Association reveals social care providers are facing £250,000 of extra annual costs because of the 1.2% hike in National Insurance contributions (NICs) that was announced in the Budget, with the threshold at which companies start making contributions also being reduced from £9,100 to £5,000. Care England has added that, combined with wage rises, the changes will leave the sector with “an additional circa £2.4 billion funding hole to plug”.
Stuart has made enhancing public services a key part of his plan for South Shropshire to secure their long-term future. He is determined to deliver the funding and support needed to enhance public services including social care across the whole constituency – having recently called on the Health Secretary to invest more in community healthcare facilities as part of its ten-year plan for the NHS.
Stuart Anderson MP said:
“I am committed to championing the health and social care needs of everyone across South Shropshire. As part of this, I want to ensure that older and disabled people can live with the dignity and respect that they deserve. I am incredibly proud of all our health and social care staff and recognise their incredible commitment to our communities. The staff who make up the paid social care workforce provide an invaluable service. I want to work with the sector in Shropshire and beyond to understand the impact of emerging challenges and ensure that there is continuity of care. I fully acknowledge that there is more work to be done. So, I look forward to working with colleagues to build consensus on these issues in Parliament.”
Stuart Anderson MP: Thank you very much, Madam Deputy Speaker. I've sat on the same meetings as the Honourable Member for North Shropshire, as the South Shropshire MP. The impact that we have in Shropshire on social care is about 80 per cent of the council's funding goes towards that. Does the Honourable Member believe we need a fairer system to support funding for social care in Shropshire?
Helen Morgan MP: I thank him for his intervention. I think that fair funding for rural authorities and indeed all local authorities, is a point that I made many times in this House, and I absolutely agree with him on that.
Stuart’s intervention can be viewed at https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/96abb2cc-eedc-41a7-8c91-5de5c0a5c1c9?in=13:59:21.
