HEALTH and Social Care services have developed at pace over the last decade.

We are seeing people with more complex needs supported to live at home and the quality of services has generally improved.

Both of these are very positive outcomes, the first largely driven by a need to keep people out of already overstretched acute services and the second largely through improved inspection and regulation.

Whatever the reason, it is a good thing that more often people can stay in their own homes and people with complex needs are living within local communities.

However, there have been challenges and one of the biggest has been ensuring people working in home care services are suitably trained and supported to undertake increasingly complex work.

Many support workers now carry out functions that would have previously been undertaken by health professionals and they require additional training and support needs to ensure these functions are done safely.

The problem is that the funding has not followed this change in provision.

It is now widely accepted that social care budgets are under huge pressure and the recent announcement by the Government, giving councils the right to add a 3% precept to Council Tax misses the point.

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid stated that this amounts to local funding for locally delivered services, but these services are subject to National Eligibility Criteria as set out in the Care Act.

We, the general public, still pay our main taxes into central government and I think we should all question why we are being asked to pay again, through our council tax, for these key services – part of our national health and social care system.

So I wish you all a happy and successful New Year, and hope that by this time next year we still have high quality providers of social care services in every area of the country.