Liz Truss plans to use NHS funds to support the social care sector  

Liz Truss, the newly appointed Prime Minister, is set to divert £13bn, which was intended to go to the NHS, into social care.  

The money was originally expected to help the NHS with the backlog of treatment after the COVID-19 pandemic.  

The Conservative leadership frontrunner said in a hustings on Tuesday night: ‘I would spend that money in social care. Quite a lot has gone to the NHS. I would give it to people in local authorities. We have people in beds in the NHS that would be better off in social care.’ 

During the hustings, Mrs Truss outlined that the biggest problem with the NHS is the lack of local decision making which requires them to go through layers of organisations before they can get anything done, rather than the lack of funding.   

The £13bn, due to be raised from higher national insurance (NI) contributions, brought in under Boris Johnson’s government, was always intended to be given to social care in later years, but in the short term was presented to the NHS. 

Mrs Truss has announced she will scrap the NI rise and source the funding from general taxation but will deliver it straight into social care.   

Richard Murray, the Chief Executive of the King’s Fund, an English health charity, has commended Truss for acknowledging social care, but notes the NHS needs funding as well.  

He said in an interview with The Guardian: ‘Liz Truss’s comments are welcome recognition that the lack of social care capacity has a knock-on impact on other health and care services, but it’s hard to see how the NHS could have this funding removed without it impacting the standards of care patients receive.   

‘The unfortunate reality for whoever takes over as prime minister is that robbing Peter to pay Paul is not a sustainable solution to the health care crisis.’   

Photo by Nicolas J Leclercq