WHITEHALL

Councils and NHS row over Better Care Fund use

Some Integrated Care Boards (ICB) are seeking to challenge or repurpose the parts of the Better Care Fund (BCF) earmarked for social care funding, senior Local Government Association (LGA) councillors have been told.

Some Integrated Care Boards (ICB) are seeking to challenge or repurpose the parts of the Better Care Fund (BCF) earmarked for social care funding, senior Local Government Association (LGA) councillors have been told.

A report to the latest meeting of the LGA's executive advisory board said it was ‘offering some support to councils in systems which cannot agree the use of the BCF'.

The report read: ‘The LGA has reminded DHSC [Department of Health and Social Care] and NHS England of the rules and original purpose of the fund, and advocated strongly against the behaviour shown by some ICBs.'

Fledgling ICBs, which became statutory almost two years ago, have been told to make 30% cuts in their running costs by April 2025, with no uplift for inflation, meaning the real terms cut will be much higher.

Chief executive of Warrington BC, Steve Broomhead, who is a board member of Cheshire and Merseyside ICB, said: ‘It's a project in development.

'There are tensions around cost shunting.

'We'd like them to make more effort on prevention.'

One ICB chair said: ‘The tensions are structural.

'Nobody talks about local government in the NHS-only meetings, which I find very strange.

‘What we're asked to do is almost entirely NHS.

'They are the things that NHS England asks us to do.

‘Nothing matters as much as waiting lists and cancer waits.

'No matter what they say it's very top-down.'

WHITEHALL

Forging the future

By Martin Ford | 25 June 2025

With the sector in crisis and the need for radical change, fundamental questions are being asked about what local government is for. Martin Ford reports.

WHITEHALL

Now for the fair funding fireworks

By Michael Burton | 25 June 2025

The Government has finally grasped the nettle of fair funding by producing a controversial draft set of plans which among other changes will benefit deprived...

WHITEHALL

Lessons for uncertainty

By Ann McGauran | 17 June 2025

When it comes to reorganisation, you need to look at it from every angle. Ann McGauran spoke to experts who have faced the acute challenges of restructuring ...

WHITEHALL

Council tax hikes will do the heavy lifting

By Kate Ogden | 17 June 2025

Surprisingly, local government wasn’t at the end of the queue for the chancellor’s cash – or at the front – but it is the upcoming consultation on funding re...

Dan Peters

Popular articles by Dan Peters