Action to support fragile social care sector is vital health leaders warn

Responding to the Health Foundation’s new analysis estimating an extra £3.4 billion a year is needed to save adult social care services from decline, Rory Deighton, acute director at the NHS Confederation, said:

“Social care provides vital support to people up and down the country every day and is intricately linked with the NHS. As well as being a good in its own right, the sector helps keep people out of hospital or get home from hospital more quickly. A lack of social care can leave patients medically fit enough to go home stuck in hospital beds, which can exacerbate waiting times across health systems.

“The fragility of the social care sector is one of the biggest challenges facing the health and wellbeing of our population. Low pay and long hours have led to huge gaps in staffing, with more and more providers closing, feeding instability into a struggling system.

“That is why it is vital that while we wait for the Casey Review to be completed, the government acts to stop the social care sector going under which would be bad for people who rely on care and bad for the NHS. It could increase delayed discharges, waiting lists and avoidable costs, and push NHS providers into deficit or to cutting services.”