Councils are working hard to ensure all people, including those with disabilities and their carers, receive high quality, reliable care and support, as well as information and advice, to help them lead independent and fulfilling lives.
Responding to a report by Sense on the provision of care for people with disabilities, Cllr Izzi Seccombe, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, said:
“Councils are working hard to ensure all people, including those with disabilities and their carers, receive high quality, reliable care and support, as well as information and advice, to help them lead independent and fulfilling lives. Thousands of disabled people and their carers are currently supported by councils through care and support services and information and advice, and this report rightly calls for government to ensure social care is adequately and sustainably funded so this can continue.
“Immediate pressures and the £2.3 billion funding gap facing social care by 2020 needs to be addressed by government in the forthcoming final Local Government Finance Settlement to help provide disabled people with complex needs, and their carers, with the care and support they rely on from their local council every day and in the future.
“Social care directors are worried about their ability to meet statutory duties and without genuinely new money, the availability and provision of social care is seriously under threat. More care providers will go out of business, more contracts will be handed back to councils, care workers will lose their jobs and there will be less investment in supported housing, prevention and information and advice. This will lead to greater strain on informal carers and impact on the wellbeing and outcomes of everyone who relies on social care.”