Camden Council announces extra £3.6m for health and social care

Older residents, carers and those in need of assisted living are set to benefit from more funding for adult social care (ASC) as the council announces an extra £3.6 million for its services over the next year.

Residential care, therapeutic treatments and support for carers will get a boost as a result of higher budgets.

The Town Hall’s Better Care Fund, which aims to support independent, person-centred care, has seen an “inflationary uplift” since last year.

The extra cash will be used to help bring down hospital and care home admissions.

The council’s Carers Action Plan, which launched in July with the goal of supporting “unpaid or informal” carers, will get £130,000 more than expected.

Chris Lehmann, head of adult social care strategy and commissioning, announced the new investments at the Town Hall’s health and wellbeing board meeting on Wednesday 18 September.

She was especially pleased to unveil an extra £40,000 towards a pilot for therapy treatment to address the “root cause” of hoarding behaviour.

Cllr Anna Wright, cabinet member for health, wellbeing and adult social care, praised the “exciting” cash injections.

Simon Wheatley, a director for NHS North Central London’s Integrated Care Board (ICB), applauded the collaboration between local government and the the health service in creating the plan.

He said: “In spite of complexity and challenges to local government and the NHS, you can see consistent good performance across most of the metrics, and we’re outperforming many of our peers.”

The council’s director of public health, Kirsten Watters, said the extra funding could strengthen borough’s winter preparedness, particularly as it braces for the impact of norovirus, which “closes over 100,000 beds each winter across the system”.

What is the Better Care Fund?

The Better Care Fund is a joint programme between central government departments, NHS England and local authorities across the country to support health and adult social care.

It was created in 2015 to integrate health and social care and drive moore person-centred care, sustainability and better outcomes for people and carers.

At a local level, the integration serves to join up health and care services to help people manage their own health and wellbeing, and “live independently in their communities for as long as possible,” according to NHS England.

The four partners pool budgets from local government grants and NHS allocations to integrated care systems.