By 2030, over half a million people with dementia will not have access to a care home bed, report warns

With only 450,000 care home places available by 2030 and over 50,000 people with dementia needing to find a place, a new report warns this shortfall will also put pressure on the 700,000 family carers, already at breaking point, bearing the brunt of the failing social care system.

The new report, published today, commissioned by the Alzheimer’s Society and written in collaboration with Richard Sloggett, the Stabilise, Energise, Realise warns one in eight adults are carers in the UK, with over 1.3 million providing over 50 hours of care a week.

The Alzheimer’s Society has calculated that ‘unpaid carers’, or families and friends providing care to their loved ones, are providing care to a value of £13.9billion a year and that this will increase to £35.7billion by 2040.

In its 2019 manifesto, the Conservative party pledged to reform adult care and Boris Johnson on his first day as PM promised to fix social care "once and for all", later telling the public he had an "oven-ready" plan for social care.

Kate Lee, chief executive at Alzheimer’s Society said: “The recent figures forecasting a shortage of care home beds are a grave concern – every person with dementia should be entitled to quality care, but social care is failing them and their families.”

Based on these figures, the Alzheimer’s Society is calling on the government to set out a plan to transform the sector over the next ten years.

The report identifies seven key areas of recommendations including; free personalised care through general taxation, paid for by the state rather than individuals, ensuring care costs are capped, a ten-year social care people plan that is focused on retaining, attracting, training, putting on an equal footing with the NHS workforce and representation of social care commissioners in the NHS, ensuring parity of social care with the NHS.

It’s proposed these recommendations should take place across three phrases of reform: Stabilise: stabilising and properly funding social care to deliver for all following years of neglect and the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic; Energise: energising to improve care with technology, making it more personalised while coordinating with housing bodies (to support people to live more independently), as well as through efforts to secure a better paid, better skilled, and more valued workforce; Realise: where care is offered on an equal footing with the NHS and we realise a system we all want to grow old in and be proud of.

“Our recommendations for social care reform today should be met with open arms by the government,” says Ms Lee. “Politicians have the opportunity to step forward and make a properly reformed social care system the legacy of the pandemic. Never again must we leave our most vulnerable so unsupported.”

To read the full report, go to https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/sites/default/files/2021-08/stabilise-energise-realise-report.pdf