The state of social care in England has “never been so bad”, the country’s leading social services chief has said, with half a million people now waiting for help.
Sarah McClinton, president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), told a conference of council care bosses in Manchester: “The shocking situation is that we have more people requesting help from councils, more older and disabled with complex needs, yet social care capacity has reduced and we have 50,000 fewer paid carers.”
Over 400,000 people rely on care homes in England and more than 800,000 receive care at home. But care services are struggling with 160,000 staff vacancies, rising demand and already tight funding for social care that is being squeezed by soaring food and energy inflation.
About a third of care providers report that inability to recruit staff has negatively affected their service and many have stopped admitting new residents as a result. Last month the Care Quality Commission warned of a “tsunami of unmet care” and said England’s health and social care system was “gridlocked”. Problems in social care make it harder to free up beds in hospitals, slowing down the delivery of elective care.
“The scale of how many people are either not getting the care and support they need, or are getting the wrong kind of help, at the wrong time and in the wrong place is staggering,” said McClinton, who is also director for health and adult services in Greenwich. “It is also adding to the endless pressures we see with ambulances and hospitals, and adding to the pressures we see in our communities, more people requesting help with mental health and domestic abuse.”
More than 2 million hours of homecare couldn’t be delivered in the first quarter of this year leaving unpaid carers “at breaking point”, ADASS said. Councils are receiving 5,400 new requests for help every day.
The warning comes amid reports the government is preparing to delay the introduction of an £86,000 cap on social care costs, a reform that was due to come alongside a new funding deal for councils that commission social care. Calls from MPs and campaigners for an additional £7bn a year from the Treasury to bring social care back into equilibrium are also likely to be rejected as the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, weigh public spending cuts and tax rises to fill an estimated £40bn budget hole.
Care workers earn £9.50 an hour on average. Half of health and social care workers say the government’s approach to pay makes them more likely to quit in the next one to three years, according to research by the Trades Union Congress.
Care England, which represents for-profit companies that provide most of England’s care homes, last week warned the PM of “a mass exodus of care providers across the country” without immediate support.
Martin Green, its chief executive, said: “This will be devastating not only for those receiving care and their loved ones but also through the catastrophic knock-on effects it will have on the NHS”.
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A government spokesperson said: “Social care is a top priority and we are committed to bolstering the workforce and protecting people from unpredictable care costs. We have today launched our annual domestic recruitment campaign, Made With Care, to encourage people to take up a career in adult social care and we are also investing £15m to increase international recruitment into the sector.
“Funding for health and social care services will be maintained at the same level as intended when the health and social care levy was in place, including £5.4bn for adult social care, [over three years] while we have committed £500m to support discharge from hospitals into care homes.”