WILTSHIRE Council’s health chief has joined those pressing the government to publish their plans on adult social care.

Ministers pledged a 3.2 per cent funding increase to the NHS year-on-year as they launched the health service’s 10 year plan earlier this month.

But the sustainability of NHS finances has been questioned by the National Audit Office, the government’s finance watchdog.

In its report, the NAO said extra funding may have to be funnelled into paying for expensive agency staff and that without a long-term funding settlement for council-led social care, it could be hard to make the NHS sustainable in the long term.

Coun Jerry Wickham, the Wiltshire Council lead on adult social care, agreed with the NAO.

“Everyone welcomed the fact the NHS is getting money. It’s absolutely right it does,” he said.

“But that’s only one dimension of the whole system.”

Despite the focus in ministers’ NHS plan on preventing ill health, Coun Wickham said prevention remained the responsibility of council public health teams.

But the local authority departments have had their grants slashed by central government: “That seems absolutely barmy to me at a time when we are trying to deal with an obesity crisis and the whole issue of smoking," he said.

"I’m a great believer that prevention is a way of reducing demand for the NHS.”

He called for the government to publish a green paper on social care, setting out reform plans. The paper is already a year late and reports suggest it is unlikely councils will receive significant amounts of more money.

Earlier this month, Coun Brian Ford, cabinet member for adult health at Swindon Borough Council, urged the government to publish a long-delayed green paper on adult social care: “It’s long overdue and we hope this will mesh and gel with the long term plan. It’s essential that we all work together for the good of the residents of Swindon.”

Anita Charlesworth of think tank the Health Foundation said of the NAO report: “It is essential that the government takes heed of this clear, independent evidence and recognises that further investment is needed to shore up the health service.”

A government spokesman said: “The long-term plan, backed by a significant funding increase of £20.5 billion a year by 2023-24, rightly sets out that putting the NHS back on to a sustainable financial path is a key priority, and is essential to allowing the NHS to deliver further improvements in care.”