Local government leaders have renewed calls for more support for social care after latest figures show record numbers of people being kept in hospital because there is no-one to look after them.
Figures from the Government Statistical Service show 200,000 hospital bed days were lost in October because of delays in sending patients home in what is known as 'bedblocking' -- 25% up on the previous year and the highest number since records began.
Most were the result of delays in hospitals while people waited for further treatment, but more than a third were due to social care support not being available to allow patients to be safely discharged home or into a care home, up from 31% a year ago.
Cllr Izzi Seccombe, chairman of the Local Government Association's community wellbeing board, said social care for the elderly and disabled was now facing a potential funding gap of at least £2.6bn.
She said councils were 'absolutely committed' to reducing the level of delayed transfers of care from the NHS.
But she added: 'Getting people out of hospital more quickly and back living at home will only work properly if councils get enough resource throughout the whole year to properly fund adult social care.
'The scale of underfunding is placing the care provider market under huge pressure, making it more difficult to discharge people from hospital into care.'
For more on social care funding see LocalGov's feature, 'How the Hell are we going to pay for social care?'