“With people living longer, increases in costs and decreases in funding, the system is at breaking point and is ramping up pressures on unpaid carers who are the backbone of the care system."
Responding to a report by Age UK on the safety net for older people living at home, Cllr Ian Hudspeth, Chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, said:
“This report is a further warning of the crisis in adult social care and the urgent need to plug the immediate funding gap and find a long-term solution on how we pay for it and improve people’s independence and wellbeing.
“With people living longer, increases in costs and decreases in funding, the system is at breaking point and is ramping up pressures on unpaid carers who are the backbone of the care system.
“Over recent years, councils have protected adult social care relative to other services. But the scale of the overall funding picture for local government as a whole means adult social care services still face a £3.5 billion funding gap by 2025, just to maintain existing standards of care. The likely consequences of this are more and more people being unable to get quality and reliable care and support, which enables them to live more fulfilling lives.
“Action is needed, which is why, following government’s decision to delay its green paper on adult social care, the Local Government Association has published its own green paper consultation to drive forward the public debate on what sort of care and support we need to improve people’s wellbeing and independence, the need to focus on prevention work, and, crucially, how we fund these vital services.”
NOTES
- The LGA’s green paper consultation, which runs until 26 September, is available here.
- The LGA will respond to the findings in a further publication in the autumn, which will be used to influence the Government’s own expected green paper, forthcoming Autumn Budget for 2019/20 and Spending Review.
- Recent surveys by the LGA show that 96 per cent of councils and lead members believe there is a major funding problem with adult social care; 89 per cent said taxation must be part of the long-term solution to funding it, and that 87 per cent of the public support more funding to plug the significant funding gap in the sector.