LGA calls for more funding for social care

The Local Government Association (LGA) has called on the government to provide more funding for social care to improve the quality of care received by elderly people.

The comment comes as part of a response to an Age UK report which criticise the care system. Both Age UK and the Alzheimer's Society warned that the care offered to vulnerable elderly people was rationed, with the number of older people not receiving help rising by 50 per cent since 2010.

The research indicated that: there are now an estimated 1.2 million over-65s going without help for care - nearly one in eight of all older people; some 300,000 of them have difficulty with three or more tasks, including dressing, bating and going to the toilet; and councils agreed to help under half the 1.3 million people who approached them for care last year.

It found that where home care was provided ‘serious problems’ were identified in the way dementia patients were treated; staff said they had not been given enough training to cope with the complex needs people had; and families reported examples of poor care, including loved ones not being given medication, being left in dirty clothes for days and going missing after homes had not been properly secured.

Caroline Abrahams, of Age UK, added: “The sad irony is that it would be far more effective as well as infinitely more humane to give older people the care and support they need.”

Cllr Izzi Seccombe, Chairman of the Local Government Association's Community Wellbeing Board, said: “There is now a real need to raise national awareness of what social care is, why it matters and why it has to become more of a priority for the public and the government. These figures illustrate the scale of the pressure facing adult social care services which are so critical to the wellbeing and independence of people with a complex range of needs, their carers and families. 

"Our analysis has found that social care for the elderly and disabled faces a funding gap of at least £2.6 billion. People increasingly unable to access the support they need as services cease or become increasingly rationed is a symptom of those funding pressures and is also clearly having a knock-on impact on the NHS.

"Unless social care is properly funded, there remains a growing risk to the quality and safety of care, and the ability of services caring for our elderly and vulnerable to meet basic needs such as ensuring people are washed and dressed or helped out of bed. 

"Councils, care providers, charities, the NHS and the public are all united around the need for central government to take urgent action.”