Social care funding 'at fork in the road' - Alzheimer's Society comment
The Health Foundation and The King’s Fund have highlighted a worrying lack of progress on social care reform, in extensive new analysis of funding pressures and options for change.
The authors point to low public awareness and lack of agreement on what should be done as major barriers to progress, despite political consensus on the need for urgent action.
They conclude that reforming the current system will be expensive, but that if reform is chosen, England is now at a clear ‘fork in the road’ with a choice between a better means-tested system and one that is more like the NHS; free at the point of use for those who need it.
Sally Copley, Director of Policy and Campaigns at Alzheimer’s Society, says:
"The current care system is not functioning properly for people living with dementia, with people picking up the tab for their care, and sometimes losing all that they have, in a way that we do not see with other conditions.
“One million people will have dementia by 2021. We have been calling on the government to act for some time, through our Fix Dementia Care campaign, to recognise the scale of the dementia challenge, and create an equitable system delivering quality care, which doesn’t lump huge bills on those faced with a dementia diagnosis.
“The Government’s upcoming Green Paper on social care reform must put forward solutions that end the inequity that people with dementia currently face in accessing the system.”
