The National Care Forum (NCF) – the leading association for not-for-profit social care has
commented on the publication of ADASS’s Spring Survey which reveals local councils are
under increased pressure to satisfy rising cases of complex care and support needs for
people leaving hospital.
Vic Rayner OBE, CEO of NCF said: “This report shows for the first time how the changing
needs of people are impacting on the availability of care and support within communities.
People coming forward for assessment for the first time, whether from home or hospital,
have increasingly complex needs and it is crystal clear that local authority budgets have not
kept pace, meaning many people are not getting the care they need, when and where they
need it.
“The concerns being reported by DASSs that an increasing number of people whose care
and support should be covered under Continuing Health Care are now requiring local
authority funding or being forced to fund their own care, is alarming and must be
addressed. The patchy and inconsistent nature of CHC is creating a postcode lottery, putting
unnecessary pressure on individuals, carers and the system as a whole. This research shows
that there is clearly a significant gap between the increasingly complex care and support
people want in the community and what is actually available – this can’t go on.
“It is well understood that effective care provided at the right time can prevent people
requiring further emergency care and hospital admission. Many of the challenges we are
now seeing have their roots in the inaction of previous governments. The new government
has an opportunity to tackle this urgent crisis head on and change the approach, so people
are able to live their lives well. The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has talked
of fixing the broken NHS and we urge him and his department to seize the opportunity to
ensure the pressures on social care are front and centre of these plans. We want to work
together with the new government to help address the immediate priorities and look
forward to bringing the combined expertise of our diverse membership to finding solutions
to these challenges.”