Facing up to underfunding: Equity and retrenchment in community care

Local social services departments in the UK are expected to distribute their cash-limited budgets for community care in ways that achieve an equitable allocation of resources in situation where, with present levels of finding, they cannot meet all the needs with which they are presented. This paper discusses a care study of the introduction of a "needs-based" formula. to allocate a local authority's budget for, home care services and a follow-up survey to investigate whether services reached the people intended to benefit. The article argues that the "gatekeeping" role of commonly care assessments ir important to safeguard equity without the inflexibility of highly standardized tests of eligibility. However, with the new Labour government seeking to reduce depending an public expenditure, and a growing lobby for national standards of social care, it will be increasingly important that local authorities justify their different practices with evidence about how they relate to local needs.