No one wants to see their elderly mum or dad or sick neighbour suffer but this is exactly what is happening in health and social care. While social care remains chronically underfunded, the support elderly and disabled people rely upon will continue to suffer and deteriorate. Another care crisis, like the one we saw this winter, will become an unavoidable reality all year around, the vulnerable will not get the care they deserve and the NHS will remain under pressure.
This is why it is vital that the chancellor uses next month’s budget to protect social care funding in the same way it is doing with spending on the NHS. We know there is less money in the system for everyone, but council and health leaders all recognise that it’s a false economy to only protect one part of the system – investing money and protecting funding for the NHS while forcing councils to cut already stretched social care budgets.
Social care services help elderly and disabled people remain independent and stay in their own homes and out of hospital. Simple everyday support such as washing, dressing and meals on wheels aren’t luxuries that we can choose whether or not to fund – they are essential services that must be properly funded if we are to continue helping people to live independently.
It simply doesn’t make sense to invest money in responding to increased hospital demand when investment in care and support would help keep people out of hospital in the first place, and prevent them from returning if they require acute care.
While councils have been striving to protect spending on adult social care as much as possible, growing demand, escalating costs and a 40% cut to local government budgets across this parliament means they are being forced to make impossible decisions about which services they can afford to provide.
The repercussions of this are being felt not just by those reliant on the care system, but by everyone who uses services provided by a council. This April, local authorities will have to divert £1.1bn from services like fixing potholes, running libraries and keeping our streets clean to pay for adult social care. These are services that contribute to everyone’s wellbeing and everyone in the community values, not just elderly or disabled people.
This isn’t good enough. We need a care system that is fit for the 21st century and it must be a shared ambition between government, councils and their health partners. It’s not enough to keep papering over the cracks. Getting this right is crucial for the future sustainability of social care and the NHS, and for the quality of care people receive.
Simply put, if adult social care remains underfunded, the most vulnerable will not get the care they deserve and the NHS will remain under pressure. This is a situation in which neither health nor social care wins, and it is the people who need care who will suffer the most.
The government needs to invest money in protecting a system that is there to look after people in the long-term and not just in the immediate term – and it should be a priority for next month’s budget to do just that. ……….’
61chrissterry 
No one wants to see their elderly mum or dad or sick neighbour suffer but this is exactly what is happening in health and social care. While social care remains chronically underfunded, the support elderly and disabled people rely upon will continue to suffer and deteriorate. Another care crisis, like the one we saw this winter, will become an unavoidable reality all year around, the vulnerable will not get the care they deserve and the NHS will remain under pressure.
This is why it is vital that the chancellor uses next month’s budget to protect social care funding in the same way it is doing with spending on the NHS. We know there is less money in the system for everyone, but council and health leaders all recognise that it’s a false economy to only protect one part of the system – investing money and protecting funding for the NHS while forcing councils to cut already stretched social care budgets.
Social care services help elderly and disabled people remain independent and stay in their own homes and out of hospital. Simple everyday support such as washing, dressing and meals on wheels aren’t luxuries that we can choose whether or not to fund – they are essential services that must be properly funded if we are to continue helping people to live independently.
It simply doesn’t make sense to invest money in responding to increased hospital demand when investment in care and support would help keep people out of hospital in the first place, and prevent them from returning if they require acute care.
While councils have been striving to protect spending on adult social care as much as possible, growing demand, escalating costs and a 40% cut to local government budgets across this parliament means they are being forced to make impossible decisions about which services they can afford to provide.
The repercussions of this are being felt not just by those reliant on the care system, but by everyone who uses services provided by a council. This April, local authorities will have to divert £1.1bn from services like fixing potholes, running libraries and keeping our streets clean to pay for adult social care. These are services that contribute to everyone’s wellbeing and everyone in the community values, not just elderly or disabled people.
This isn’t good enough. We need a care system that is fit for the 21st century and it must be a shared ambition between government, councils and their health partners. It’s not enough to keep papering over the cracks. Getting this right is crucial for the future sustainability of social care and the NHS, and for the quality of care people receive.
Simply put, if adult social care remains underfunded, the most vulnerable will not get the care they deserve and the NHS will remain under pressure. This is a situation in which neither health nor social care wins, and it is the people who need care who will suffer the most.
The government needs to invest money in protecting a system that is there to look after people in the long-term and not just in the immediate term – and it should be a priority for next month’s budget to do just that. ……….’