Joint letter on adult social care.
Two years ago the Government rightly recognised the scale of the problem and the need to find a long-term, sustainable solution for adult social care. Two years later and its long-promised green paper on the future of adult social care still hasn’t been published.
High quality, properly funded social care and support enables people to live the lives they want to lead through access to the right care in the right place at the right time. But with more people needing care, increases in costs and decreases in funding, this is becoming more and more difficult. More than two million people in England have left their jobs to provide unpaid care for family or friends.
While one-off funding injections have helped to curb the severity of immediate pressures, they are only short-term and do not address the underlying structural problems facing the care and support system.
Adult social care services face a funding gap of £3.6 billion by 2025. This is what is needed simply to keep on providing existing support at current levels and would not meet the cost of changing the current model of provision, or include the funding needed to tackle under-met and unmet need.
Brexit cannot be a distraction from the challenges facing our adult social care services which millions rely on every day.
We are uniting today to urge the Government to be bold in its upcoming adult social care green paper and Spending Review and urgently invest in these essential services, which also help reduce demand on the NHS, prevent sickness and reduce hospital admissions.
Older and disabled people who need dignified care and support, and unpaid carers, deserve action now.
Local Government Association
Age UK
Alzheimer’s Society
Association of Directors of Adult Social Care
Association of Directors of Public Health
Care and Support Alliance (DR UK is a member)
Care England
Care Provider Alliance
Carers UK
Independent Age
NHS Confederation
NHS Providers
Sense
Solace
Voluntary Organisations Disability Group