It was just as well for his own sake that health secretary Jeremy Hunt was unavailable to address last week's social services conference; instead it was left to one of his junior ministers to placate an audience of sceptical care chiefs following a blizzard of reports warning of a meltdown in social care and health budgets.

Even before community health and care minister David Mowat stood up to announce that he was only three months into his job and still learning, delegates at the National Children's and Adult Services (NCAS) conference had ploughed through a succession of alarming studies on adult care. First there was the joint King's Fund/Nuffield Trust report in September questioning the sustainability of adult care in its current form. Then came the Commons Health Committee study on NHS finances and a letter from committee chair Dr Sara Wollaston to the chancellor on 26 October warning that without action on social care then the entire NHS Five Year Forward View strategy was undeliverable. Last week the Association of Directors of Adult Services said that a poll of 129 of its directors showed a projected overspend of £444m. The next day a study by PwC called for health and care to be placed under one department with much greater devolution.