Age UK launches social care 'score card' highlighting increasing need for care

A social care ‘score card’ has been launched today by older people’s charity Age UK to reflect the growing demand for care and support.

The charity reports that taking into account additional funding of £1.4 billion received from the NHS, the total amount spent on adult social care for older people has dropped by more than £1 billion in the last five years.

The study by the charity revealed that the amount of older people aged 65 and over receiving social care and support has decreased by 40 per cent since 2005; the results further revealed that the number of people aged 65 and over has increased by more than 15 per cent.

Director of Age UK, Caroline Abrahams 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.

“The more preventive services like meals on wheels and day care are being especially hard hit, leaving the system increasingly the preserve of older people in the most acute need, storing up big problems for the future.

“Hundreds of thousands of older people who need social care are being left high and dry. The lucky ones have sufficient funds to buy in some support, or can rely on the goodwill of family, neighbours and friends. But there are many who are being left to struggle on entirely alone.”

Age UK revealed that more than 900,000 people aged between 65 and 89 have a requirement for support and social care services but these needs have not been met, whilst the number of older people receiving home care has decreased by more than 30 per cent and the number of day care vacancies has dropped by 66 per cent.

Ms Abrahams continued: “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.”

In addition to the number of people aged 65 and over receiving home care decreasing, the number of older people receiving meals on wheels support has fallen by 63 per cent.

Hundreds of people aged 65 and over in the UK are struggling to carry out daily tasks such as getting out of bed, washing, dressing and using the toilet with one third of those not receiving any support.

The ‘score card’ study revealed that 80 per cent of all older people who needed help to take medication do not receive support and more than 60 per cent of people who need help eating were required to struggle on their own.

Ms Abrahams 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 £3.8 billion is not new money and the projected savings from reductions in emergency admissions are very optimistic.

“So policymakers owe it to the public, older people especially, to confront the crisis in social care and its consequences. 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.”