Today, the Association for the Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), have released their annual budget survey, highlighting the increasingly fragile state of the social care system.
In response, Caroline Abrahams, Co-chair of the Care and Support Alliance and Charity Director at Age UK, has stated that:
“When council social care bosses – who tend to issue very measured responses – say the situation with social care is bad, you know it’s really bad.”
“Despite the best efforts of councils to protect care for older people, the latest ADASS survey highlights the desperate and growing gap between the needs of pensioners and the help available for them.”
“Unless policy makers are willing to invest in care, hundreds of thousands of people face a bleak future, living without their needs being met. It is a disgrace that there are at least 1.2 million older people and disabled people, who need support with daily essentials like getting dressed, going to the toilet, taking their medication or preparing their food, who are missing out.”
“The upcoming Green Paper on social care must not only come up with ideas for improving what’s on offer, it must also deliver the funding to make it happen. This is not only the right thing to do from a moral perspective, it makes good economic sense too: properly funded, effective care an help keep older people and disabled people with care needs fit and well, in their homes or a care home. It is far cheaper than a spell in hospital, which will often be the only alternative. The Government needs to grasp the nettle of care funding once and for all.”
For media enquiries, please contact Liz Fairweather on 0203 033 1718 or at Liz.Fairweather@ageuk.org.uk