Response to ADASS report on care

Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director of Age UK said:

"These new figures make for grim reading and behind them are real older and disabled people whose lives are being sadly diminished by lack of essential support. They highlight how desperate things are at the moment in social care, because of shortages of money and staff, so I hope Ministers will stop trying to claim that they have 'fixed social care' . It would be fantastic if they had but unfortunately there is clearly an awful lot more for them to do. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of older and disabled people are having to put up with a ramshackle service, with more than half a million unable to get even to first base by having an initial assessment."

"I'd love to be able to give people some hope by suggesting that once the Government's care reforms start to come in next year, things will start to improve. The problem though is that this wouldn't be true, because their changes really only relate to how much financial support people get in paying for their care, they won't do anything to expand the help available or improve its quality and reliability, and that's what many older people and their families tell us worries them the most. After all, what's the point of having the reassurance that you won't face unlimited bills for your care, if there's no one to provide it for you in the first place?

"The Government deserves great credit for committing to improve social care, after all its recent predecessors chose to look the other way. However, Ministers are at grave risk of being seen to over-promise and under-deliver on their promises, as this latest ADASS survey demonstrates only too well. It's an utterly miserable situation for many older and disabled people, as it is for all the committed people who work in social care, alongside those who commission services in local authorities, who know they have no chance of meeting local needs."