New social care report reflects what the public is telling us
The King's Fund has this week published their annual review of social care. With a focus on access, quality, workforce issues, and delivery of care by providers - the report is another reminder of the huge challenges facing the system, and the impacts on unpaid carers and people who need support to live independently.
Louise Ansari, chief executive for Healthwatch England, responded to the findings of the report:
Social care is vital for people who need support to live independently, as well as for unpaid carers. However, local authority resources for social care are stretched, and there is growing financial uncertainty across councils.
We are working with local Healthwatch to map out why people don’t always get the support they need from the social care system and which needs go unmet. This includes people’s struggles to find the right information about services, long waits for care and financial assessments, and people not getting the support they need due to poor communications, staff shortages and prohibitive costs.
The King’s Fund’s research backs what we are hearing from the Healthwatch network: that demand for social care is increasing, and the support available for council teams and care providers to help deliver is lagging behind or unavailable. That’s why we’re calling for better communication with the public about services that are available, more personalised delivery of care, and more funding to ensure that care needs and staffing requirements are met.
