Speaking up for vulnerable Londoners

London Councils is calling on the Department of Health (DH) to provide fair funding for the social services relied on by vulnerable adults in the capital. Read our press release.

In April 2006, the DH introduced a new funding formula for personal social services (PSS) for adults aged 18 to 64, to predict need in different local authority areas.

This new formula predicts London's social care needs have either fallen or are not increasing at the same rate as other parts of the country - a prediction that bears little correlation to current trends. Based on this prediction of need, London's social services will lose out on millions of pounds.

For the first two years, the impact of this new formula was damped - whereby government guarantees a minimum increase (or floor) in funding - to provide some protection against the losses.

But in April 2008 ministers removed damping from the formula, resulting in London losing some £863 million over the next three years before grant damping is applied.

This means London borough services are now dependent on grant damping for survival - with 28 boroughs already on the grant floor for 2008/9 and the level of the floor diminishing year-on-year.