Before the Spending Review announcement, four leading agencies in the health and social care sector wrote to the Government, outlining their concerns about the frailty of social care budgets, and social care markets. And we asked: ‘Listen to our message…and demonstrate the value that our country justly places on getting it right for disabled and older people who need its care and support.’

The signatories were the Care Provider Alliance, the Care and Support Alliance, The NHS Confederation and Association for Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS). In our opinion the Government, while providing some welcome recognition, did not respond as well as we had hoped. So we have had to write to the chancellor, this time asking for direct talks, brokered by the Department of Health or the Department for Communities and Local Government, so that they can think again about the direct impact their Spending Review decision will make on the lives of vulnerable people.