Over half a million people waiting for social care, report reveals

More than half a million people are now waiting for adult social care assessments, reviews or care support to begin, finds a new report from the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS).

The data released today suggests more than six in 10 councils are having to prioritise assessments and are only able to respond to people where abuse or neglect is highlighted, for hospital discharge or after a temporary period of residential care to support recovery and reablement.

There has been a 16% increase in the number of hours of home care that have been delivered since Spring 2021, but that dipped from a high of over 41 million hours in Autumn 2021 in the first quarter of this year as staff vacancies and sickness impacted on hours delivered.

Almost 170,000 hours a week of home care could not be delivered because of a shortage of care workers during the first three months of 2022, according to the report.

According to ADASS, this evidence shows that despite staff working relentlessly over the last two years, levels of unmet, undermet or wrongly met needs are increasing, with the situation continuing to get worse.

Despite increasing the amount of care provided, there is an even greater rise in the support now needed, with more people left without essential care.

Not only are people waiting longer for care assessments, reviews, care packages and personal budgets, but family carers are having to shoulder greater responsibility and are being asked to take paid or unpaid leave from work when care and support are not available for their family members.

Sarah McClinton, ADASS President, said: ‘We have not seen the bounce back in services after the pandemic in the way we had hoped. In fact, the situation is getting worse rather than better.

‘Social care is far from fixed.  The Health and Social Care reforms go some way to tackle the issue of how much people contribute to the cost of their care, but it falls short in addressing social care’s most pressing issues: how we respond to rapidly increasing unmet need for essential care and support and resolve the workforce crisis by properly valuing care professionals.’

Cathie Williams, ADASS Chief Executive, added: ‘Without action to prioritise care and support in people’s homes and local communities, it will take years rather than months to fully recover.

‘We need a funded plan so that we can ensure that everyone gets the care and support they need, with more of the Health and Social Care Levy being used to fund care and support in people’s homes and communities over the next two years.  People cannot wait for funding to trickle into adult social care and wider community services.’

Photo by National Cancer Institute