Failure to address long-term care funding in the Government's legislative agenda met with disappointment by local government experts, following today's Queen's Speech.

Setting out the support people can expect from Government, the draft care and support Bill aims to modernise the legal framework ahead of the imminent white paper on the issue.  The Bill will respond to the recommendations of the Law Commission into social care law and establish three quangos – Health Education England, the Health Research Authority and a London Health Improvement Board.

Directors of adult social services said they were ‘unable to hide their disappointment' that there was no mention of how care services will be adequately funded.

ADASS President Sarah Pickup called on the Government ‘to recognise the urgency of the situation we face, maintain its momentum, and pick up the issue of adult social care as a key priority as the next spending review approaches'.

Sector think tank the New Local Government Network (NLGN) said the Government's failure to address the funding issue risks ‘bankrupting local government'.

NLGN director, Simon Parker said: ‘The country is storing up a crisis in the social care system.  This is the single biggest cost that local authorities face and demand is rising rapidly.

‘If the government cannot find a way to contain the costs of elderly care, the short-term impact will be to suck money out of critical local services such as roads, street-cleaning and community support.  In the long term, there is a clear risk of bankrupting local government finances.'

Andy Sawford, chief executive of the Local Government Information Unit approved the mention of future legislation on funding, but expressed concerns that the plans are vague, urging the government to confirm that legislation will follow the forthcoming white paper.   

Speaking to The MJ, Mr Sawford said: ‘Everyone in local government knows we have to have real progress on getting new money into the care system.  Not exactly as Dilnot proposed, perhaps, but taking that agenda forward in some way.

'There needs to be a clear commitment to legislate on a major long-term settlement.  The sooner the Government moves on that, the better for momentum.'