Home News LGA responds to Independent Age report on quality of care homes

LGA responds to Independent Age report on quality of care homes

0

Responding to a study by Independent Age on the quality of care homes, Cllr Izzi Seccombe, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, said:

“This study sadly reflects the consequences of the social care funding crisis and is further evidence of the ever more pressing need to adequately fund adult social care for both the immediate and long-term.

“Councils have been doing all they can to protect services that care for older and disabled people and will continue to do so. But the scale of the pressures facing the sector, combined with the scale of underfunding the sector is grappling with, inevitably impacts on the quality of care provided and its availability.

“This is symptomatic of an increasingly fragile provider market, in which providers are either pulling out of contracts or going out of business. It is also leading to growing unmet need, further strain on informal carers, continued pressure on an already overstretched care workforce, and a decrease in social care’s ability to help mitigate demand pressures on the NHS.

“The stark reality is that the quality and choice of care homes will likely get worse, unless immediate action is taken to tackle social care underfunding and implement long-term reform of the sector.

“The Government’s forthcoming green paper, and its separate work on working age adults, provides an essential opportunity to secure the long-term sustainability of adult social care and support so that older and disabled people receive quality care that supports their wellbeing and independence and can better plan for the future.

“But we cannot afford to wait for those reforms to deliver; we need action now. As a down-payment on funding reforms, Government needs to fully plug the funding gap facing adult social care, which is set to be more than £2 billion by 2020.”

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here