"Ensuring people are defined not by the services they receive but by the many factors that make them unique human beings must be at the heart of good social care and support."
Responding to a report by Think Local Act Personal and the Coalition for Collaborative Care, Cllr Ian Hudspeth, Chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, said:
“The LGA is a member of the Think Local Act Personal partnership and strongly supports personalisation of care as set out in this document. Ensuring people are defined not by the services they receive but by the many factors that make them unique human beings must be at the heart of good social care and support. That’s why enabling people to live the lives they want rather than simply being recipients of services was a central message of the LGA’s recent green paper on adult social care. That has to be the starting point and it is incumbent on all parts of the social care system to have that as the guiding force in developing, commissioning and providing care and support.
“However, the ability to provide person-centred care and support, and the aspiration to go further, is unquestionably jeopardised by the financial challenges facing local authorities and the adult social care sector.
“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.
“The Government must use the Budget and Spending Review to inject desperately needed funding into adult social care and use the green paper to secure the long-term sustainability of the system and to ensure that its own Green Paper is underpinned by a strong commitment to person-centred care and support.”