Sunderland's £140m social care bill

NHS Digital figures show total expenditure on adult social care in the area was £145.1m in the year to March.

Of this, £24.2m was spent on council-run services and £120.9m on external care businesses.

The majority of the funding (82%) went towards providing long-term care and patients paying for services themselves contributed £27.7m to the total.

Social care spending in England reached a record £22bn last year – with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announcing a further £4.7bn in his Autumn Statement in a bid to speed up hospital discharge rates.

Nationally, almost two million new requests for care support were made last year – up from 1.9 million last year.

Of them, 14,185 were in Sunderland – up from 12,390 in 2020-21.

Health think tank, The Nuffield Trust says the increased spending to deal with the increasing demand falls short of what is required - given the inflationary pressures on councils and providers.

Natasha Curry, deputy director of policy at the think tank, said: "While spending on adult social care has risen for six years in a row, it followed steep cuts and has only just recovered to 2010 levels in real terms.

"The extra funding announced was welcome but is likely only to keep pace with inflationary pressures."

The Department for Health and Social Care said it has "prioritised" health and social care in the autumn statement" and is investing £15m to address workforce shortages.