Wednesday 23 November 2016

The social care system needs a rescue package – to help the NHS survive

The social care system needs a rescue package – to help the NHS survive The chancellor has given no hint that his autumn statement will provide urgent funding to save tottering social care

It speaks volumes about government priorities that the Treasury briefed journalists ahead of Wednesday’s autumn statement that an extra £1.3bn would be spent on roads. Yet we have been kept in the dark over any rescue package for the tottering social care system, on which the chances of the NHS getting through the winter so critically depend.

As it happens, £1.3bn is also the price of a basic rescue for social care. It is the calculation by the Local Government Association (LGA) of the gap between what care providers in England say they need now to sustain threadbare state-funded services for older and disabled people and what councils say they can afford. To meet rising demand, inflation and the costs of the “national living wage” next year would require the same sum again.

Even the Care Quality Commission has stood up and bravely warned of a system almost at tipping point Continue reading... The Guardian

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