Social care bosses have written to the prime minister urging her to invest at least £1bn to stave off a growing crisis in services for elderly and disabled people and relieve pressure on the NHS.

A letter to Theresa May from the president of the Association of Directors of Adult Services (Adass), Glen Garrod, says action to address immediate pressures faced by councils and care providers is becoming “increasingly urgent”.

The intervention comes amid fears that while May is poised to invest up to £6bn extra in the NHS to mark its 70th anniversary, social care will be ignored, despite acknowledgement that health service fortunes are closely linked to those of social care.

Earlier this week Adass warned that the social care market in parts of England was close to collapse after years of cuts, potentially leaving thousands of vulnerable adults without care. Since 2010, council social care budgets have shrunk by £7bn.

The letter, seen by the Guardian, says that directors of adult social services “have never been more fearful” that a major private provider of care could go bust as a result of rising cost pressures, with potentially “calamitous” consequences for any older and disabled people left high and dry by such an outcome.

It accepts that the public finances are tight, but says a £1bn fund to deliver specific goals, such as injecting cash into the struggling care homes sector and funding care at home for up to 50,000 older and disabled people, would both stabilise the care market and relieve pressure on the NHS.

It says: “We agree that the NHS needs a longer term funding settlement ahead of the next spending review. But as the government has acknowledged, the NHS and social care are interdependent systems. The NHS will never work properly, whatever its level of funding, without adequate funding of adult social care services.



“In the same way that the NHS needs a multi-year funding settlement ahead of the next spending review, adult social care needs additional investment ahead of the local government financial settlement and forthcoming green paper.”

The government has promised a long term overhaul of social care funding via a green paper expected in the next few weeks. But social care leaders are optimistic that ministers recognise the urgency of the crisis facing the sector and are open to finding extra money for social care if it can guarantee specific benefits.

Ministers last year provided an extra £2.6bn over three years for council social care budgets through a combination of grants and a special ringfenced council tax precept. But councils say this provided only temporary relief.