Vicky McDermott was yesterday (Monday) due to outline her concerns to the Community and Local Government select committee looking into the financial sustainability of local authority adult social care.
Ms McDermott said a failure to address the social care crisis would impact on older people, their families and carers, and overstretched services including the NHS and local authorities.
In a statement ahead of the select committee, Ms McDermott said: “Social care is a form of life support – it concerns basic things that we all take for granted like washing, eating and dressing.
“But there is a chronic underfunding of the system which means these basic needs are not being met.
“An estimated one million older people have unmet needs for care and support in England – a situation that is clearly damaging for individuals and their carers as well as piling unnecessary pressure on the NHS.
“This situation isn’t going to improve without drastic intervention. For example, the number of people over 85, the age group most likely to need care, is expected to increase by over 50% over the next decade.”
The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) has estimated that adult social care requires £1 billion each remaining year of the current Parliament just to keep the system “standing still”.
Ms McDermott added: “We know cases of people having to sleep in their wheelchair after having their twice-daily care visits cut to just one-a-day or having their access to self-help groups cut meaning invaluable social interaction and support is lost for good.
“This is simply not acceptable in 21st Century Britain and I welcome the opportunity to address the social care crisis, and also discuss possible solutions, at this crucial select committee.”
Ms McDermott was appearing in front of the select committee as chair of the Care and Support Alliance, which represents over 80 of Britain’s leading charities campaigning alongside the millions of older people, disabled people and their carers who deserve decent care.
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‘Drastic intervention’ needed, warns chief executive ahead of social care select committee
13 September 2016
The chief executive of leading disability charity Papworth Trust has urged the Government to address the “chronic underfunding” of social care or risk sending hundreds of thousands of elderly people towards breaking point.