A look into Healthwatches’ latest disability research
Healthwatch England have become the first company to publish estimates of the number of working-age disabled people whose social care needs aren’t being met. Here, we look at their findings in greater detail
To mark the fact it’s been a decade since the Care Act 2014 came into force, Healthwatch England, a campaign launched to address health inequalities across the country, have published a new report looking into the unmet care needs of working-age disabled people. It’s safe to say the results are far from positive.
Within the research, experts surveyed 1,504 disabled adults in England and discovered that more than one in four (28%) could be eligible for support under Care Act criteria but have never been given the opportunity to experience the social care needs assessment.
Looking into this more closely, individuals who took part in the poll listed a number of reasons as to why they never accessed support. The main reason was 65% of people surveyed said they didn’t think they could get any support, 34% said they didn’t know where to go to for support and 26% cited cost as being the issue. What’s more, 14% claimed they found it too difficult to get help from councils or the NHS and 2% claimed their local service had shut down.
What’s even more heartbreaking about these findings is that the research also outlined that out of the 20% of respondents who said they currently receive social care assistance, 78% agreed it helps them live the life they want. 62% remarked it helped they stay healthy and over half (51%) said it helps them complete activities they enjoy.
‘Social care can be transformative and change people’s lives,’ said Louise Ansari, chief executive at Healthwatch England. ‘Our research highlights a really positive message, that for so many people care has helped them live independently, leading the lives they want to live, how they want to live them.’
She added: ‘Yet, social care in England is under financial strain, facing a workforce crisis, and requires major reform. Our findings clarify those challenges, showing that the hidden demand for support could be as high as 1.5 million working-age adults in England. Not all these people will be eligible for publicly funded care, but far too many clearly live with some form of unmet need and don’t know where to turn for support.
‘We need to make sure there is more support for disabled people, and that this support is easy to understand and to access. Not only will this help people with their emotional and physical needs, but it will also help people who have told us they’d like more support to get into work, and it will contribute to taking pressure off NHS services.’
Annaya’s Story
It’s important to look into the stark number of people who need, but aren’t receiving social care support, although arguably we sometimes need to be faced with someone’s reality to realise how much of a problem it is.
Annaya is a 21-year-old part-time student and ambulance call centre worker from Liverpool. She has a number of health conditions including ADHD, diabetes, suspected autism and mental health problems. As a result of suffering with such illnesses, she finds it hard to complete day-to-day tasks, such as cleaning her home, and has claimed she needs some support from her council. However, she didn’t receive the result she was looking for.
‘They kept me on a waiting list for six months just to get an assessment, then they called me to say they can’t help me,’ Annaya said. ‘The assessment was also done remotely – nobody visited me at home. I live alone and struggle with household tasks and planning. Having some extra support could really help me manage these challenging aspects of my life.’
Calling for reform
These harrowing findings have resulted in Healthwatch calling for a fully funded and long-term reform plan for social care that will address workforce issues and focus on early prevention and providing help for the thousands of unpaid carers across the country.
The campaign group have set out three recommendations which are:
- The government should fund local authorities to better raise awareness of the social care support available
- They should also invest money to boost capacity and support councils in addressing existing care assessments and care package backlogs
- Disabled people should also be given access to a Care Act advocate so they can better understand the assessment process and their rights
Alongside an overview of the findings from Healthwatch, we published a long read from Louise Ansari who discusses what the next steps should be.
Image: Possessed Photography
Research estimates hidden social care demand for working-age Disabled people
