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| £3bn a year to develop seamless health and social care | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The NHS budget in England has been protected again - but the health service has been told it must do more to help councils with social care. | The NHS budget in England has been protected again - but the health service has been told it must do more to help councils with social care. |
| Chancellor George Osborne said he wanted to see £3bn set aside in 2015-16 for integrated services. | |
| He said this was to stop vulnerable elderly patients from falling into "the cracks" between the two sectors. | |
| It comes after he announced local government would get a 10% cut. | It comes after he announced local government would get a 10% cut. |
| The NHS is already committed to spending £1bn a year on joint projects with local government so this represents an extra £2bn. | |
| The chancellor told the House of Commons: "Many older people do not just use the NHS they also use the social care system and if we're honest they often fall between the cracks of the two, being pushed form pillar to post and not getting the care they want." | |
| He said this money would be spent on services that would be jointly commissioned between the health and social care - although it would come from the NHS pot. | |
| "Let's stop the tragedy of people being dropped in A&E on a Friday night to spend the weekend in hospital because we can't look after them properly in social care," he added. | |
| Council cuts | |
| Councils currently spend about £16bn on social care so in theory the £3bn joint fund represents a significant sum. | |
| However, councils have had to trim the amount they spend in recent years because of the cuts that have already taken place. | |
| And with another tranche announced for local government in this spending review some question the impact it will have. | |
| Sandie Keene, president of the Association of Directors of Social Services, said: "The benefits gained from closer integration with the services provided by our health colleagues will be rendered less valuable if the intricate relationship with other services is threatened by severe downward pressures on local government as a whole." | |
| Overall, the NHS budget will be £110.4bn in 2015-16, which represents an annual rise of 0.1%. | |
| Before the last election the Tories had promised to increase the NHS budget during the parliament. |