Age UK responds to Public Accounts Committee report on social care

The Public Accounts Committee has released a report calling for a credible plan to sustain the underfunded social care sector.

Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director at Age UK said:

"Millions of older people with care needs depend on support from enough well-trained and well-motivated staff. Chronic underfunding has led to fewer experienced and qualified staff to provide increasingly complex care.

Committed careworkers are leaving the profession or questioning their future due to poor pay and conditions and a lack of investment in their career progression.

Social care is an essential public service which needs committed leadership from the Government, backed up by significant funding to avert the risk of collapse and sustained investment for the medium and longer term. Strategies which address challenges in health and social care need to be aligned to create a workforce equipped to deal with the demands of an ageing society. The future of the workforce must be central to the social care green paper promised by the summer – otherwise millions of older people and their families will be in increasingly dire straits."