THE leader of Oxfordshire County Council has said the social care system is in danger of collapsing unless the Government urgently invests in essential services.

Speaking in his role as Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, councillor Ian Hudspeth was responding to a new report by the National Audit Office (NAO) into NHS financial sustainability.

He said a sustainable NHS is not possible without a sustainable social care sector and public health programme calling for public health budget cuts to be reversed.

He added: “Reductions in public health funding undermines our ability to improve the public’s health and to keep pressures off the NHS and social care.

“The current system of social care is unsustainable and will buckle under the weight of demand unless the Government uses the upcoming Spending Review to urgently invest in these essential services, which protect health, prevent sickness and are the surest way to reduce hospital admissions.”

NAO in their report conclude that the current NHS funding situation, with the growth in waiting lists, the slippage in waiting times, and the existence of substantial deficits, was not sustainable.

However it described the recently published long-term plan for the NHS, and government commitment to a £20.5billion funding increase as positive.