Next week Parliament will announce the results of its spending review, which might prove to be the most significant for the NHS since the Conservatives came to power.

Chancellor George Osborne will unveil the budget for the nation’s health services, at a time when there is intense pressure on departments across the country, not least that of adult social care. No promise of funding or reform for the social care system has yet been made but the importance is understood.

Yesterday, a survey of finance directors by the Healthcare Financial Management Association stated 100% of respondents at hospitals expect to end the year in deficit.

Worryingly a large majority of these finance directors don’t believe the £22bn of efficiency savings the Government want to make, are achievable. They want £8billion of annual extra cash promised to the NHS in England by 2020 to be available sooner rather than later.

Unlike many other NHS services, the department for adult social care’s budget is not protected, and the funding gap that is predicted, even after the £8billion that has been promised for England, is up to £6billion in the UK by 2020.

That figure does not even take into account the additional cost to care providers such as ourselves, of the mandatory National Living Wage for care workers, or the CQC fee increase of 300%.

There is real doubt and concern about the sustainability of the current financing system for adult social care.

The Head of NHS England, Simon Stevens, is asking for the £8billion of promised funding to be ‘frontloaded’ and made available immediately with no strings attached, to help ease pressures on over-stretched services. He also advocates that Government can better meet the needs of patients if the wider NHS and the health and social care systems work together.

The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services argues that the current system will create a future where the NHS is supported and social care is left behind – leading to failures in patient care on a mammoth scale.

If the NHS does receive additional funding in the financial year 2017-2018, what they spend this on will very much depend on whether any support for health and social care is announced next week.

Many hope that more funding will be ploughed into community based social care services, to relieve pressure on hospitals and better empower people to be cared for in their own homes.

Absolute Healthcare sincerely hopes this will be the case. We recently attended a county council meeting with other care providers in the area, to discuss ways of developing a more joined up approach to the delivery of social care services in the community.

Along with other providers, Absolute are enthusiastic about supporting the NHS and ‘sharing the load’ when it comes to community health care, but rising costs and decreased budgets mean we’re reliant on some sensible thinking from the Chancellor – and we will be awaiting the spending review announcement with great anticipation.