Social Care Costs Soar

Kent County Council is putting up council tax by 5 per cent from April.

The increase was approved by county councillors on Thursday, amid sharply rising costs, particularly in the social care budget.

The cost of caring for vulnerable adults in Kent leapt by £80m in the last year. 

The county faces having to fund increasingly complex conditions, while care providers have just been hit by the Chancellor’s Autumn budget increasing employers’ national insurance contributions and putting up the National Living Wage.

The County plans to balance the authority’s budget in the face of a £150m growth in spending need.

At KCC’s budget meeting today, Leader Roger Gough (below) told Members: “This is the right budget for the tough times in which we have to operate. There is no cavalry coming over the hill. There is only the hill. 

"So, we have to have a budget fit for that stretching environment, setting us up for a number of years, which is what this budget does.

“It reluctantly but realistically increases council tax, it continues transformation and savings in the key areas, makes progress towards the nearly 20 million pounds in policy savings, and starts to replenish our reserves to ensure that we have resilience for what is to come.

“The bleakest picture of all remains in adult social care. An area that remains under severe pressure, an area of structural flaws in terms of policy which only Government can actually address. 

"This Government could say, with some justification, that successive administrations of whatever party have failed and fudged this issue. 

"Nonetheless in these last 7 months we have seen a lethal cocktail of policies that make this so very much worse.

“Cost increases, in particular in terms of employer’s national insurance, as well as increases in the national living wage, we have taken together, giving an 11% increase in providers’ costs and presenting a real risk to the stability of that sector.  The funding formulas are not likely to help us a great deal.  

"As for reform, well we are going to have to wait for some unspecified reform in 2028. The sector does not have the luxury of that amount of time.”

The budget includes £11m to replenish the authority’s reserves, which were dipped into in 2022 and 2023 to help balance the most challenging budgets in KCC’s history.

The budget includes a 4.99% rise in council tax, with 2% of that ringfenced for social care. 

This means the County Council share of the bill for a Band D household will go up by £1.54 per week (£80.37 per year) which is in line with this year’s Government Council Tax referendum principles.

Cabinet Member for Finance, Corporate and Traded Services, Peter Oakford, (pictured below) said that by not adequately funding social care the Government is leaving local authorities with no other choice than to raise council tax for working people who are already struggling to pay the bills.

Mr Oakford continued: “ What we need is a long-term financial settlement from Government, and a recognition that every single local authority in the country is struggling to meet the rising costs of providing social care. 

"By choosing to give a better settlement to some councils, particularly those in metropolitan city areas, the Government has made the challenge of balancing the budget, particularly for social care budgets, even more difficult in county areas.

“ We have been left with no choice here if we are to avoid bankruptcy but continue to provide the care that vulnerable people in Kent need. Until Government introduces radical reform in social care and gives councils the funding they need we will have to go on cutting other services that people value, and finding those savings year after year just gets harder and harder.

“ Putting up council tax is not something I want to do. I know many residents are already up against it financially in these challenging times, but the only choice we have is to ensure that the income from Council Tax, in the absence of realistic funding from Government, meets the very challenging financial demands we are faced with.

“ We have only managed to balance this budget by overhauling some of the services we provide and cutting some really great things that people value. Gone are the days of nice to haves. We have to spend what we have on looking after the most  vulnerable people who need our help the most.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; until central Government finally sits up and recognises the increasing costs and pressures of adult social care and fully funds it, local government will have to continue to make unpalatable cuts until there is simply nothing left to cut.”

The budget proposals were accepted at a meeting of KCC’s full council today, with 41 Members voting for, 10 against and 7 abstaining.

An alternative budget was proposed by the Leader of the Labour Group, Alister Brady. The alternative budget was not carried.

A total of 6 amendments to the draft budget were put forward and debated. None of the amendments were carried.

A link to a recording of the budget meeting will be available at https://www.kent.gov.uk/about-the-council/how-the-council-works/committees-and-meetings/watch-council-meetings

For more on KCC’s budget, visit: https://www.kent.gov.uk/about-the-council/finance-and-budget/our-budget