Call for counties like Shropshire to control health cash

The call comes after Greater Manchester Council was handed total control of its £6 billion-a-year health budget.

Now the County All-Party Group of MPs has called for similar powers to be given to county authorities such as Shropshire.

It said health and social care services in rural authorities suffered from a lack of funding compared to city councils.

Ludlow MP Philip Dunne said he backed the idea in principle, saying there was a need to bring together social and health care services.

He added efforts were being made to bring health services and social care, such as help in the home for the elderly and the infirm, together but it was more difficult when funding had to come from different sources.

At the moment, social care is the responsibility of the local authority, while health provision is managed by the NHS. He said if there was a single budget for health and social care, it would make it easier for the different providers to tailor services to the individual.

Mr Dunne said in Church Stretton the Health and Social Care Partnership had been formed to help co-ordinate services better, and the early results were encouraging.

He added: "I think in principle there's much to be said for bringing NHS and social care budgets together, encouraging them to work as closely together as possible."

The report said rural councils faced greater pressures than their inner-city counterparts and the principles established in Greater Manchester "must be extended to other areas of the country".

It said: "If the case for devolution can be made in Greater Manchester, where current demand is less acute, geographies and service provision less complex and future pressures less severe, it is absolutely essential the Government turns its focus on county areas following the findings of our inquiry."

MPs and peers who sat on the group said financial pressures in county adult social care systems were "severe or critical" and authorities were "under-resourced in comparison with inner-city areas". They said county and district councils tended to have older populations and, with people going to rural areas to retire, they were "net importers of people with care needs".

The group concluded that combining health and social care services was the "only sustainable answer" in the long-term.

A survey of county council leaders and senior officials found 60 per cent described funding pressures in adult social care as "severe" and 17 per cent described it as "critical".