An interesting study from the King’s Fund and Nuffield Trust was issued yesterday 16th September 2016 – ‘Social care for older people – home truths’.

It states that over the past 5 years, local authority spending on care for older and disabled people has fallen by 11% in real terms, and the number of people who received state-funded help has fallen by about 25%, all at a time when demand continues its inevitable upward trajectory.

Public spending on adult social care is set to fall to less than 1% and ‘England remains one of the few major advanced countries that has not reformed the way it funds long-term care in response to the needs of an ageing population’.

If our government is unwilling to provide the political will and the means for adequate public funding of the current system, let alone create a system that properly funds the health and care needs of our population as a whole, it must be honest with the public about the extent to which they will be expected to fund their own care in future. If the primary responsibility for funding care sits with individuals and their families, this needs to form part of an open dialogue, supported by a robust and honest strategy including incentives for people to plan ahead for their own care needs.

If our new Prime Minister wants a more equal society and “to create a country that works not for the privileged few, but for every one of us” I suggest a good place to start is a cross party long term and visible strategy for our creaking health and social care services. What hope?

http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/social-care-older-people