Alzheimer’s Society calls for a fair settlement to be reached for adult social care ahead of the Autumn Statement
Alzheimer’s Society welcomed today’s letter from the Health Select Committee calling on the Chancellor to increase capital spending on the health service in England and direct any extra funding towards the social care system.
The social care system is in dire straits. Social care budgets have experienced a shocking £4.6billion cut over the last six years and we have seen the number of people accessing social care drop by a third. This has had a knock-on impact on the NHS with delays in getting people home from hospital costing the NHS more than £2.4billion last year. It is no longer realistic to look at NHS spending in isolation. The NHS and social care go hand-in-hand – we cannot fix one if the other remains broken. Social care urgently needs a solid financial grounding before the entire system collapses.
Social care is the majority of care that people with dementia receive. While they may get an initial diagnosis and medication on the NHS, the symptoms of dementia affect the activities of daily living meaning their care is then classed as social care. People with dementia occupy around 70% of care home places and are in receipt of 60% of home care provision.
People with dementia and their families are financially propping up a broken market where local authority funding does not match the cost of providing the vital care they need. Ahead of the Autumn Statement, Alzheimer’s Society is echoing the Health Select Committee’s letter and calling for a fair settlement to be reached for the funding of adult social care. We suggest that the amount to be provided to Local Authorities to pay for adult social care be more explicitly linked to the cost of providing acceptable levels of care in that area.
Responding to this, George McNamara, Head of Policy & Public Affairs at Alzheimer’s Society said:
“The artificial division between health and social care is irrelevant to people in crisis. The funding streams or type of care they need is immaterial: they simply know that they need help. The current system prioritises medical needs over social needs, ignoring the blatant marriage between the two. We can no longer see the funding of the NHS in isolation. We urgently need parity of esteem for social care before the NHS collapses under the weight of avoidable care costs”.
