21.01.15
Care for the elderly in ‘calamitous decline’ and putting pressure on A&Es
Pressure on A&E departments is soaring because care for the elderly in England is in a state of “calamitous, quite rapid decline” with thousands fewer receiving social care than five years ago, according to a leading charity.
Age UK figures show that despite rising demand from growing numbers of people in need of support, the amount spent on social care services for older people has fallen nationally by £1.1bn (14.4%) since 2010-11, even after accounting for additional funding from the NHS, and by a total of £1.4bn (17.7%) since 2005-6.
According to the Health and Social Care Information Centre, between 2010-11 and 2013-14 older people receiving home care has fallen by 31.7% (542,965 to 370,630). At the same time day care places have plummeted by 66.9% (178,700 to 59,125) and the number of older people who receive vital equipment and adaptations to help remain safely at home has dropped by 41.6%.
Spend on home care has dropped since 2010-11 by 19.4% falling from £2,250,168,237 to £1,814,518,000, while money spent on day care has fallen even more dramatically by 30% from £378,532,974 to £264,914,000.
All these cuts have happened at the same time as the number of people aged 65 and over has increased by 1.2 million.
Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK said: “This devastating scorecard speaks for itself and it lays bare the fact that our state funded social care system is in calamitous, quite rapid decline.
“Today, many hospitals are finding it hard to discharge older people and commentators are asking why this challenge seems to be growing, year on year. A big part of the explanation is revealed by this scorecard: the marked decline in central government funding for social care and the resultant reduction in support for older people to live independently at home – this at the same time as their numbers are rising.
“Until recently the impact of the decline in social care has been relatively hidden, but social care is a crucial pressure valve for the NHS and the evidence of what happens when it is too weak to fulfil that function is clear for us all to see.”
She added: “Above all, this scorecard makes clear that for any policymaker to acknowledge the need for investment in the NHS while omitting to mention social care is not good enough and will ultimately not solve the problems facing the NHS either.”
Cllr Izzi Seccombe, of the Local Government Association, said the system was "chronically underfunded".
"Councils have protected our most vulnerable people as far as possible, often at the expense of other services, and we will continue to prioritise those most in need.
"However, the combined pressures of insufficient funding, growing demand, escalating costs and a 40% cut to local government budgets across this parliament mean that despite councils' best efforts they are having to make tough decisions about the care services they can provide."
Yesterday the government tacitly acknowledged the impact of social care cuts on the NHS when it announced £25m in emergency funding for 65 councils in areas where delays in discharging elderly patients from hospitals are most severe.
The money, which is estimated to help 9,500 people, must be spent by councils by the end of March to buy in extra support services to help patients coming out of hospital.
However, David Pearson, president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services said that the money would not plug the “huge gaps” in social care budgets nor solve “all the problems within our accident and emergency services”.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said the launch of the Better Care Fund – a pot predominantly funded from the NHS to encourage greater integration between health and care - would help.
"We know we need to work differently to respond to our growing ageing population."
She added the fund would "focus resources on helping people to live independently, which will save money and reduce unnecessary hospital admissions".
However Abrahams disputed the impact the fund would have. She said: “The Better Care Fund is very welcome, in so far as it is encouraging local health and care services to work together with other community services to improve their support to older people living with frailty. However the £3.8bn is not new money and the projected savings from reductions in emergency admissions are very optimistic.”
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