“The LGA has been warning of the increasingly urgent need for sustainable funding and support for social care for some time and vital action is needed to improve this situation not just to free-up hospital beds, but to put social care on a sustainable footing, recruit and retain and increase the pay of staff and allow the sector to thrive.”
Responding to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) report ‘Beds in the NHS’ which shows 13,000 more staffed beds are required across the UK, Cllr David Fothergill, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board said:
“Getting patients out of hospitals and back in their homes with the correct support, or into care facilities is crucial for alleviating pressure on NHS beds.
“With high vacancy levels in all areas of social care, the workforce doesn’t have the capacity to deliver what is currently required to get people where they need to be with an appropriate level of care.
“The system is also suffering from long-term underfunding, and the situation continues to worsen with increasing unmet and under-met need.
“A sustainable NHS depends on a sustainable social care system, as care and support is essential in its own right in supporting people of all ages to live their best life as well as alleviating pressure on the health service.
“The LGA has been warning of the increasingly urgent need for sustainable funding and support for social care for some time and vital action is needed to improve this situation not just to free-up hospital beds, but to put social care on a sustainable footing, recruit and retain and increase the pay of staff and allow the sector to thrive.”