Social Care Can’t Wait

As part of their #SocialCareCantWait campaign, the national Age UK team are calling on the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak MP, to give councils the extra money they need to provide decent care services for older and disabled people now and over the next three years, when he announces the outcomes of his Spending Review at the end of October.

At Age UK BRWF we know that good social care makes such a big difference to older people and their families too. The problem is that, despite everyone's best efforts, it can be hit or miss whether you get it, because across the country there just isn't enough money for care, or enough care workers, to go round.

We are pleased that the Prime Minister has announced more help for older people who face sky high care bills, but virtually none of the funding that goes along with his plan is set to arrive in local areas like ours before autumn 2023 at the earliest, and most of it is tied up with administering the new care cap.

Yet many older people living in North Worcestershire and elsewhere need more help from good care services now. They can't afford to wait until 2023 because that will be far too late. Unless more money comes into social care via local councils very soon, more and more older people will have to put up with inadequate provision, if they can get it at all. Without an urgent injection of cash we also fear the position will go on getting worse, because of growing demand and rising costs.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, is holding the future of care in his hands. That's why we are calling on him to play his part in "fixing social care", as the Prime Minister has promised, through the funding decisions he makes in a few weeks' time. For older people who need help here in North Worcestershire and, indeed, throughout the country, the stakes really are very high.

Amanda Allen, Acting CEO of Age UK Bromsgrove, Redditch & Wyre Forest