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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2016-02-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they intend to take to increase the percentage of GDP being spent on NHS and social care services.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Spending Review settlement, delivered by the Chancellor on 25 November 2015, set the Department’s overall budget for the remaining years of the Parliament and the level of funding that will be available to the National Health Service. It set absolute spending totals, not spending as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product, providing certainty for financial planning over the period.

As a result of the Spending Review, NHS funding will be £10 billion higher in real terms by 2020-21 than 2014-15. And the NHS will not have to wait until the end of the Parliament for much of this investment. We will be giving the NHS £3.8 billion more next year, over and above inflation, and almost £6 billion of the £10 billion in the first two years of the six year period. This shows that the Government has listened and responded to what the NHS has said about the profile of investment it needs to deliver the NHS’s own plan, the Five Year Forward View.

In regards to social care, the Spending Review has shown our continued commitment to joining up health and care by confirming ongoing commitment to the Better Care Fund – making available further social care funds for local government from 2017, rising to £1.5 billion by 2019-20, which will be included in the Better Care Fund. As well as this, we are giving local government further access to the funding it needs by introducing a social care precept which could raise up to £2 billion by the end of the Parliament.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2016-02-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 20 January (HL5278), what are the equivalent figures for public spending on adult social care; and why percentages have declined since 2009/10.

Lord Prior of Brampton

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is usually reported on a United Kingdom basis.

The Department is responsible for reporting on adult social care spend in England and is not in a position to provide equivalent spend figures for adult social care by the devolved administrations.

Spend on adult social care in England, including National Health Service transfers, as a percentage of UK GDP is set out in the table below.

Table notes:

1. Spend information for 2009-10 onwards is based upon Department for Communities and Local Government outturn data.
2. 2014-15 figures are from Health & Social Care Information Centre Adult Social Care Finance Return data. This data collection is new for 2014-15 and is not comparable to historical spend figures.
3. GDP figures sourced from HM Treasury 23 December 2015

Ultimately it is a local decision on how much to spend on adult social care. In order to get the deficit under control, local government has had to find its share of the savings.

Councils have risen to the challenge of achieving savings whilst setting balanced budgets, keeping council tax low and maintaining satisfaction in services. Many grant ring fences have been removed over the last five years, giving councils more flexibility to meet local priorities as they see fit.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2016-02-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 27 January (HL5282), what were the sources and total cost of the non-recurrent deficit support income” used to fund directly the 125 trusts that would otherwise have been in deficit in financial year 2014/15; how many of those deficit trusts continued to require such deficit support during the financial year 2015/16; how many other NHS trusts are likely to receive such support in financial year 2015/16; what is the estimated total cost of such deficit support in financial year 2015/16; and what is the forecast contingency provision for such support in financial year 2016/17.”

Lord Prior of Brampton

To clarify my previous answer on 27 January (HL5282), 15 National Health Service providers received non-recurrent deficit support income from the Department in 2014/15, and without this income seven organisations would have reported a year-end deficit. This would have added to the 118 NHS providers that reported a financial deficit, resulting in a total of 125 NHS providers reporting an underlying deficit.

The total cost of this deficit support income was £176.3 million in 2014/15. Funding for this was provided through releasing resources from areas where there were no clear plans for spending.

The deficit support income does have the presentational effect of reducing or removing the deficit but the underlying deficit position is transparent in reporting and provider accounts and still remains until the trusts are in recurrent balance and are no longer needing financial support.

2015/16 information will be published alongside the Department’s accounts and providers are expected to report this income separately in their accounts.

For 2016/17, the £1.8 billion Sustainability and Transformation Fund will help providers to move to a sustainable financial footing.