For social care, it’s time for action, not words.
Decades of underfunding and lack of action have left social care in a shocking state, and at least, 2.6m people can’t get the care they need. The Care and Support Alliance (CSA) which has more than 50 member organisations, is asking party leaders to prioritise social care in the next parliament.
When it works well, social care changes lives. It enables people to live the lives they choose: to socialise, work and volunteer, and to stay independent. It allows unpaid carers to balance caring with other aspects of their lives.
“Since being granted 24/7 care, my daughter was able to leave to go to university. I’ve joined a community choir. I go swimming and to the gym. I can make plans with friends. I feel like I have a future as opposed to the years that I had spent barely existing.”
– Rachel
Everyone should be able to access the care they need to live happy and fulfilling lives. Real leadership and action from the next government is the only way that millions of older people, disabled people and their carers can get it.
Read the full text of the open letter:
Dear Party Leader,
Show Us You Care
We’re writing to you to say for social care it’s time for actions, not just words.
Good care supports people to live their lives. To get up and out, work, see the people they love, be independent as long as possible. Yet currently, at least 2.6m people go without the care they need. Social care provision has slipped far below an acceptable level and is having very real consequences for millions of older and disabled people and their unpaid carers.
Promise that you will make change happen in the next Parliament, come up with sustainable funding and support the social care workforce. Millions of older and working aged disabled people and their carers desperately need a social care system that works, and a failure to act would be a betrayal.
The Care and Support Alliance of over 50 charities, and everyone who has joined this letter, agree that to make social care work for people, we need a government that:
1) Addresses the shortfall in current social care spending and puts in place a long-term funding commitment to meet current and future demand. Piecemeal pots of funding will not deliver the change, services or stability the sector and care users need.
2) Addresses the core issues facing the workforce, including pay, conditions, career development and skills recognition, as part of a new, fully funded social care workforce strategy.
3) Enables local authorities to tackle social care assessment and carer’s assessment waiting lists through enhanced dedicated funding.
4) Develops a new National Carers Strategy including investing in carers’ breaks, introducing paid carer’s leave, and urgently reviewing Carer’s Allowance and other social security benefits carers can claim.
5) Removes social care charging entirely for working-aged disabled adults so they don’t have to part-fund their care from state benefits designed to pay for daily living costs, like food and heating.
If you are in the privileged position of leading the next government you could transform the lives of millions of older and disabled people and their carers. You could ensure our care workforce is recognised and valued.
It’s time for actions, not words: please Show Us You Care – commit to reform social care once and for all.
