Funding dropped by more than 6% despite government assurances, survey finds.
last year - a drop of more than 6% - despite government assurances there was enough money available to avoid services being affected.
The figures from a survey conducted by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (Adass) showed that in the past two years social care budgets had lost £1.89bn in funding - at a time when pressure from rising numbers of older and disabled adults continues to grow at 3% per year.
Although ministers say resolving the issue of social care funding is a top priority, there are growing tensions within the government over how to fund proposals drawn up by a review led by the economist Andrew Dilnot.
He called for a cap of about £35,000 on the costs of care that must be shouldered by elderly and disabled people, with the state paying anything above that figure - and argued for "additional public funding for the means-tested system".
While Adass says three-quarters of the savings have been achieved through what the report describes as "efficiencies", almost £200m has come through increasing charges or reducing services.
Sarah Pickup, president of Adass, said the reductions were despite resources being transferred from the NHS to protect services and fund rising demographic pressures. "Some councils have had to resort to reductions in services to balance their budgets. We are particularly concerned at the impact this might have on preventative and voluntary sector services," she said.
"With pressure from care home and home care providers to reflect rising costs in the prices we pay for care, charges to people who use services often already at the maximum permitted level, rising demand and a downward trajectory for councils' funding, it could not be clearer that there is a desperate need for politicians from all parties quickly to find an answer to how we, as a nation, are going to adequately fund social care services in the future."
Experts warned of pressures building on the NHS. Richard Humphries, senior fellow at the King's Fund, said: "This survey once again highlights the growing pressure on social care services. With further local government budget cuts to follow, it is not alarmist to warn of an impending crisis in social care and the risk that this will undermine the performance of the NHS.
"Our own work shows how pressures on social care services are feeding through into high levels of hospital bed occupancy, contributing to an eight year high in the proportion of patients spending more than four hours in A&E."
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