Blackburn with Darwen Council's social care boss has welcomed the prospect of extra government cash for the costs of looking after adults and children in need.

But Cllr Jackie Floyd said she had yet to receive any details of how much the authority will receive, but doubted it would be enough to meet the borough's needs.

Last week Communities Secretary Michael Gove announced upper-tier councils across the country are to get a share of a £600 million support package to help them deliver key aspects of their work – £500m of which will be directed towards adult and children’s social care departments.

The extra cash has been promised amid growing calls for financial assistance for councils whose already stretched budgets have been hit by the spike in inflation over the last 12 months, and increasing demand for services.

Lancashire County Council has estimated it will benefit to the tune of around £11m from the extra social care grant.

The authority's deputy leader and cabinet member for finance Cllr Alan Vincent said that it was much-needed, but not a solution.

He said: “We very much welcome the extra funding from government around social care cost pressures.

“The precise amount we get will probably not be clear until the final local government settlement is confirmed in early February.

"Working on the basis they allocate it using the Adult Social Care Relative Needs formula, which we expect it will be, then it should be circa £11m.

“That is very much an estimate and it is intended to cover some of the cost pressures in adult and children’s social care, but it won’t cover all of them and will require us to carry on our work to improve our efficiency across the council and to drive down costs.

"It should also be noted that the extra money is for next year, not this one.”

Blackburn with Darwen Council's adult social care boss Cllr Floyd said: "The government has not yet announced individual local authority allocations of this social care funding.

"We expert further details on this when the final local government finance settlement is announced in early February.

"Of course, additional funding is helpful but it also needs to be seen in the context of the significant demands faced by adults and children's social care and the significant reduction in funding generally over the last 14 years."