The past few weeks have again seen the issue of care funding raised nationally, this time around the issue of pay for care workers.

Care minister Norman Lamb continued his rise to prominence with a well-publicised call for investigations into pay, following UNISON claims that over 90% of councils do not require their providers to pay staff for the travel time that consumes up to a third of their working day.

This, almost inevitably, will lead to a call for additional funding to meet the gap. After seeing almost half their budgets eroded in recent years, councils are almost certainly not in a position to fund this, much as they would like to. And ministers will be reluctant to provide additional funding.