Social care will receive more funding through the NHS in this spring’s 10-Year Health Plan, the health and social care secretary has revealed.
Speaking to BBC's Panorama programme, which is to be broadcast tonight, Wes Streeting said he wanted to spend more NHS resources ‘through social care because it delivers better outcomes for patients and better value for taxpayers'.
Streeting said: ‘I am convinced we can spend NHS resources more effectively through social care.'
The health and social care secretary was unable to give a timeline on when the funding would be delivered or say how much extra funding would be given but said the 10-Year Health Plan will ‘include elements of social care because the two do have to go hand in hand together'.
Social care leaders warned last week that the sector faces collapse after MPs voted to reject their exemption from an increase in National Insurance Contributions.
On the NHS, Streeting said it was ‘not all about money and you can't keep on pouring ever increasing amounts of taxpayers' money into a system that is not set up to deliver best use of that money and best care for patients and that's why the system needs to change'.
Lee Peart is editor of Hemming Group’s Healthcare Management magazine.