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Denis Campbell, Health Policy Editor and Robert Booth, Social Affairs Correspondent
The NHS in England received an additional £ 3 billion next year to address the huge backlog of canceled operations due to Covid and the rise in mental illness caused by the pandemic.
Hospitals will spend around £ 1 billion of the money trying to reduce the number of people waiting for non-urgent surgery, such as a hip or knee replacement or cataract removal, and the long delays that are increasingly common. The number of people forced to wait at least a year for elective care has soared from 1,500 in February to almost 140,000 in September.
“Our world-class NHS has played a pivotal role in the response to the coronavirus, but we know how desperately difficult and distressing it has been for patients waiting to undergo operations and medical treatment during the pandemic,” said Rishi Sunak, Chancellor.
The £ 3bn is far less than the £ 10bn a year more than the British Medical Association and Health Foundation think tank have said the service needed to cope with the growing demand for care.
The £ 1 billion will fund the NHS to carry out up to a million more checks, scans and operations on people who were unable to receive treatment in the spring when many non-Covid services were suspended.
Around £ 500 million of the £ 3 billion will go towards expanding mental health care for people who were unable to access help when the pandemic broke out. That money will be used to address both the backlog of adults referred for mental health care and to create new specialized services for those under 18. It should also help ensure faster access to “talk therapy” for people with anxiety and depression.
The £ 3 billion will increase the Department of Health and Social Care budget by £ 6.6 billion and means that the NHS revenue budget in England in 2021/22 will be £ 136.1 billion.
Cancer Research UK welcomed the £ 1bn to reduce waits for care and £ 325m to expand diagnostic testing, including replacement of old scanners, to detect cancer and other diseases .
Some of the money will also go towards expanding the NHS workforce and improving training. However, health experts said the £ 3 billion was inadequate. “This additional funding comes as the NHS faces the most difficult time in its history. While welcome, it is not clear that this is adequate to meet the enormous challenge ahead, ”said Professor John Appleby, research director and chief economist of the Nuffield Trust think tank.
Sunak was also criticized for increasing spending on the crumbling social care system by just £ 300 million.
Homecare providers said it had left a “black hole” in social care budgets with announcements of what it said was £ 2bn in additional funding. Parliamentarians, peers and the care sector have argued that even before the Covid crisis, the government needed to increase spending on adult social care by £ 7bn to £ 8bn per year.
City councils have estimated that Covid has added another £ 6.6 billion in costs in just six months, with soaring costs and a drop in occupancy. More than 18,000 people died from the virus in residences.
Sunak’s offer falls short of filling the void, the care industry said. Sunak announced £ 300 million in new grants from the central government plus powers for councils to impose a council tax requirement of 3% to fund social care. Sunak said that adds up to £ 1 billion in new money, but the Kings Fund think tank said the precept does not guarantee that money will be raised where it is needed.
Vic Rayner, executive director of the National Care Forum, called the agreement “a catastrophe for social care” and said the funding was “completely and totally inadequate; it can only lead to reductions in the provision of care.” Jeanelle de Gruchy, president of the Association of Public Health Directors, said the absence of a budget increase for public health was “completely incomprehensible.”
Sally Weale, Education Correspondent
Principals responded angrily to the Chancellor’s spending review, describing it as “a slap in the face” and “a hit to the body” for school leaders and their teams, who have worked tirelessly to keep schools open during the pandemic. .
They were angry that the chancellor did not provide additional money to help schools with the rising costs of Covid that are decimating budgets, and they warned that a pay freeze would nullify efforts to keep teachers in the profession after a decade of pay austerity. .
Paul Whiteman, secretary general of the National Association of Teacher Directors, said public sector workers, who had been on the front lines of the pandemic response, should not be forced to pay for the recovery out of their own pockets. “Keeping schools open is leaving school leaders burned out and exhausted. Today, they and other public sector workers sought help from the government.
“But the chancellor has not provided an additional penny to deal with the costs of Covid. Salaries are abolished, Covid costs are left unmet, and the needs of the most vulnerable students are ignored. ”School leaders would be“ justifiably furious, ”he said.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and University Leaders, said: “The government asks more and more of teachers and leaders, and then it effectively cuts their salary. It should come as no surprise that staff decide to leave the profession. “
He welcomed confirmation of additional investment in schools through 2023, but said any increase in funding was being wiped out by the cost of Covid security measures and teacher supply coverage that the government has not yet had. refunded. “Many schools will be significantly worse off as a result of these additional costs and are likely to have to make further cuts.”
Dr. Mary Bousted, deputy general secretary of the National Union of Education, added: “The Chancellor said he wants stronger public services, but he has dealt a severe blow to the staff of our schools and universities. Education workers are key workers who have kept the country going during the pandemic, but wage cuts are the only reward from this government. “
Patrick Butler, Social Policy Editor
The £ 3bn spending review increase for English councils from April is unlikely to fully cover the rising costs of the coronavirus and social care costs or prevent major cuts in services in the coming months. local authorities warned.
The chancellor said city councils would receive a 4.5% increase in “purchasing power” next year, including £ 300 million in welfare grants and £ 3 billion to help city councils cope with losses. related to Covid of commercial fees and municipal tax collections.
Taxpayers in England will see city tax bills rise by as much as 5% from April after ministers allowed councils to raise up to £ 1 billion through a special 3% local precept closed to adults and child social care.
Cllr James Jamieson, president of the Association of Local Governments, said that while additional financial support was welcome, councils “would still have to find savings for already tight budgets to fill funding gaps and fulfill their legal duty to establish a balanced budget next year. “
Cllr David Williams, president of the County Councils Network and Hertfordshire County Council Leader, said that while the chancellor’s announcement would “ease the burden” on councils, many still face “some tough decisions next year on what services to cut back.” .
Care England, which represents social care providers, called the billion-pound boost a “drop in the bucket” compared to pressures on care budgets. “Of course £ 1 billion is welcome, we appreciate every penny but compared to the NHS and the challenges facing the industry, this figure is too small and too late,” said CEO Martin Green.
Dan Sabbagh, Defense and Security Editor
Specialized Met police and MI5 officers will meet at a new Counter-Terrorism Operations Center to improve coordination between investigators addressing the violent threat from Islamism and the far right.
The plan was quietly announced with the detail of Sunak’s spending review, although Whitehall sources said it had been a couple of years in development and was originally a response to the series of terror attacks in 2017.
Specialized police and spies will gradually move from Scotland Yard and Thames House to a new London building, the location of which has yet to be revealed, although it is expected to take five years before it is fully operational.
Independent reviews have said that while the Met and MI5 generally work well together, areas of difficulty remain, including “non-integrated systems,” as Lord Anderson reported last year.
Previously, MI5 had recognized parliament as evidence: “If we are honest right now, we have a spirit of partnership and a kind of [of] professional esprit de corps that is here and we have IT connectivity that is kind of [down] here.”
Prosecutors and other specialists are expected to join the center, but the organization will not have its own boss, and while the investigators will work closely, they will continue to report to their separate agencies.
British intelligence agencies will also receive an additional £ 173 million in 2021/22, which, according to the Treasury, equates to “an average annual increase in real terms of 5.4% from 2019-20”, plus an investment of capital of £ 1.3 billion over the next three years. The extra money is shared between MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, whose individual budgets are kept secret.
As Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced last week, Defense enjoyed one of the largest cash increases of any Whitehall department. The £ 41.5 billion defense budget will increase by £ 24 billion over the next four years, including £ 6.6 billion from R&D.
Defense spending would grow “1.8% a year” above inflation until the end of parliament in 2024, ending years of cuts in real terms that began when David Cameron took office in 2010.
