Local authority social care services face a funding gap in excess of £1bn by 2015, according to The King's Fund.
The health-care think tank says this is despite additional funding announced in the recent Government Spending Review.
In its paper, Social care funding and the NHS: an impending crisis?, The King's Fund calls for a single national settlement for health and social care and budgets to be brought together.
A 27% cut in real terms for local government funding has left a £1bn spending gap which will result in knock-on effects for the NHS.
The paper warns cuts to frontline social care services will cause more emergency admissions, delayed discharges and longer waiting times.
Against this backdrop, the paper calls for policymakers to work towards creating a unified system of care that recognises the reciprocal relationship between health and social care and puts the needs of people using services first.
It makes the following recommendations:
- Adopting a unified national policy framework and replacing processes with a single strategic assessment of the funding needs of the NHS and social care.
- Closer alignment of resources through locally pooled and place-based budgets.
- Developing a better understanding of local patterns of need, spending and outcomes.
Richard Humphries, the paper's author, says: "The vital role played by social care in supporting the NHS to meet people's needs is well known. However, health and care needs are in fact two sides of the same coin - social care should no longer be viewed as just a supportive handmaiden to the NHS.
"Attempts so far to make this reciprocal relationship work in practice have not gone far enough and vary widely from place to place. Without action, fewer people will receive the care and support they need with knock-on effects on those unable to access NHS care."
