We all know there is a crisis in Social Care and there is a promise of a Green Paper, which currently, is down to the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care , Matt Hancock. If you care about Social Care these two gentlemen need to create action to solve the crisis in social care , hence the Petition – Solve the Crisis in Social Care. so please consider the following:
Dear Friends,
I just added the petition “Solve the crisis in Social Care”.
It would mean a lot to me if you took a moment to add your name because:
This is not taking into account the demand for Children’s Social Care and the increase in demand since 2018, but as stated in the report, ‘At the same time, growth in government spending has only seen a 0.4% increase in real terms and the 10,670 fewer people received long term social care support’, effectively a substantial decrease in funding. This will and is having an impact on health care services and adds to the health funding crisis.
Until all social care is sufficiently funded for children and adults, be they elderly, disabled, or in poor health, health services will be substantially affected, and health funding will need to be increased to compensate, to some degree, for the substantial underfunding of social care.
It is not only causing distress and concern for persons in need of care, but also affecting their families, whose own health will be deteriorating due to the lack of Social Care and who in time will also need social and health care
I am a Family Carer and can see this happening for a considerable number of years for my own adult disabled daughter and how it has affected my own health and that of my wife.
But funding is but one element of the Social Care Crisis, as good quality care is also a casualty, not only due to the increasing demand for social care, but the substantial lack of persons wishing to enter the caring profession.
Here the lack of a wage/salary which matches the responsibilities, which need to be undertaken, the length of shifts, the number of unsocial hours, the care required in relation to the degree of disability and need and others.
Austerity cuts to local authorities are partly to blame for some areas of this crisis, which has impacted on the funding available for social care, where the need is increasing, the lack of workers in social care and the increases to the National Living Wage.
These problems relate to the whole area of care, be it in relation to Care and Nursing Homes, Supported Living, or Home Care.
Real change happens when everyday people like you and I come together and stand up for what we believe in. Together we can reach heaps of people and help create change around this important issue.
After you’ve signed the petition please also take a moment to share it with others. It’s super easy – all you need to do is forward this email or share this link on Facebook or Twitter:
Ahead of this week’s Autumn Budget, Community Care highlights the main pressures facing social care for children and adults
Photo: Michail Petrov/Fotolia
by Gordon Carson & Luke Stevenson
To stake their claims to receive more funding in next week’s Autumn Budget, children’s and adults’ social care leaders and experts have submitted a series of requests to the chancellor, Philip Hammond, as the sector tries to convince the government of the scale and scope of the crises facing the sector.
Here, we’ve picked out some of the key messages and numbers from their submissions and other reports, ahead of the chancellor’s speech on Wednesday (22 November).
Children’s social care:
25% – the real terms cut in central government funding for children’s services, from £10 billion to £7.6 billion, from 2010-11 to 2015-16. Spending on services by local authorities has fallen from £10 billion to £8.4 billion (Source: Turning the Tide)
40% – the reduction in local authorities’ early help services since 2010-11 (Source: Turning the Tide)
7% – the increase in crisis support spending over the same period (Source: Turning the Tide)
29% – the predicted cut in funding for children’s services from central government by 2020. The most deprived councils had already had to cut funding six times more than the least-deprived areas (Source: Turning the Tide)
23% – the level of spending cuts made in the most deprived local authorities (Source: Turning the Tide)
40% – the proportion of council leaders who said they were unable to meet one or more statutory duties for children (Source: National Children’s Bureau)
The growing pressures on children’s services have been highlighted again in a report by a consortium of children’s charities, including Action for Children, the National Children’s Bureau and The Children’s Society, which warned that councils were being forced to intervene later in children’s lives because of funding pressures.
The Local Government Association, responding to the report, said councils had worked hard to minimise the impact of cuts, but the increase in numbers of children in care and referrals to children’s services had made this harder to maintain.
Richard Watts, chair of the Local Government Association’s children and young people board, said: “With such high demand for child protection services, councils have been forced to scale back the early help that can make such a difference in reducing the need for this support in the first place.
“This report suggests that government funding for early intervention has fallen by £1.7 billion since 2010, leaving local councils with the impossible task of attempting to continue delivering these services while also providing help and protection to the growing number of children at immediate risk of harm.”
He called on the government to use the Autumn Budget to fully fund children’s services. The association has previously warned about a £2 billion funding gap in children’s services by 2020.
Adults’ social care:
£2.5 billion – the funding gap facing adult social care in 2019-20 (source: a pre-Budget report published by The King’s Fund, Nuffield Foundation and The Health Foundation, which said social care “remains on the brink of crisis”)
£1.3 billion – the amount of money required to stabilise the adult social care provider market (Source: pre-Budget submission by the Local Government Association)
Although the government announced an extra £2 billion for adult social care in the Spring Budget, the Local Government Association has said this is not enough to deal with all immediate and short-term pressures on adult social care, and highlighted that the funding stops at the end of 2019-20.
Although the adult social care council tax precept, which enables local authorities to raise council tax bills by 3% in 2017-18 and a further 3% 2018-19 to help fund adult social care, was a “welcome short-term measure”, the LGA said extra council tax income “will not bring in anywhere near enough money to alleviate the growing pressure on social care both now and in the future”.
It also said the government’s main vehicle for driving integration, the Better Care Fund (BCF), had “lost credibility and is no longer fit for purpose”. Its focus on reducing pressure on NHS acute services “is detracting from local initiatives to support social care and stabilise the perilously fragile social care provider market”.
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