Sheffield has the ninth highest proportion of social care applicants in the country who receive nothing

More than a quarter of adults in England who applied for social care support last year were turned down, which follows Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announcement to fix adult social care in the country, through a 1.25 percentage point hike to National Insurance.

Councils in England received more than 1.9 million requests for support from new clients in need of help in 2019-20.

NHS Digital data shows that this responds to 44 residents in every 1,000 residents.

Of those applicants, 530,560 (27.5 per cent) were recorded as having ‘no services provided’ to them.

In Sheffield, 58.6 per cent of requests resulted in ‘no services provided’, while 1.5 per cent resulted in signposting to other services.

Signposting to other services may include long or short term support arranged by the council, in residential settings or in the community; end of life care; ongoing low level support; or more intensive care funded by the NHS for those with more serious health needs.

There were 32,815 new requests for support in Sheffield in the 2019-2020 period.

People receiving short term or low needs support who applied for more support and got turned down are not counted in the new request figures.

A total of 21,580 requests were in respect of those aged between 18-64.

For this group, 76.7 per cent of requests (16,560) resulted in no services being provided, and 1.4 per cent of requests (300) being signposted to other services.

In regards to those aged 65 and over, 11,235 requests were made, in which 23.9 per cent of requests (2,680) resulted in no services being provided, and 1.7 per cent of requests (195) being signposted to other services.

Although the statistics place Sheffield in ninth place in the country for the highest proportion of people who received no support, the city ranks second worst in the Yorkshire and Humber region.

North East Lincolnshire is ranked worst in the Yorkshire and Humber region, and worst in the country overall, with 72.2 per cent of requests resulting in ‘no services provided’.

In July earlier this year, it was revealed how the northern and midlands regions had borne the worst when it came to social care cuts outside of London.

NHS Digital argued that the outcome of ‘no support provided’ should “not be seen as reflecting negatively on the local authority but more as a statement about the type of request for support that was made”.

The Prime Minister had pledged to address social care issues in England without increasing taxes in the 2019 election.

He told MPs he accepted the move breaks his manifesto promise, but that “a global pandemic was in no one’s manifesto”.

His new plan is hoped to raise £36 billion over the next three years, to fund both social care and the post-pandemic NHS catchup plan.

MPs are expected to vote on the social care tax hike in the House of Commons today.

BACKGROUND: Social care spending down by more than 5% in Sheffield following decade of austerity