The Government must introduce long-term, sustainable funding mechanisms for Adult Social Care to address chronic underfunding and rising demand. This should include replacing the Social Care Precept, which discriminates against areas with greatest deprivation and lowest property values, with a mechanism that reflects actual need and levels of deprivation experienced in local authority areas.
The Government should empower local authorities to build care homes to avoid unnecessarily high costs.
The Government should provide funding for pilot programmes, innovation hubs and prevention programmes to test new approaches in service delivery and new technologies, and to reduce demand for crisis care.
The Covid-19 pandemic laid bare the years of underfunding and unaddressed structural fragilities in the care system. There are failings across UK care homes, long waiting lists, staff shortages and poor pay and conditions. It is clear how urgent the need is to fix our broken social care system.
Reform of the adult social care system has long been promised over successive Governments, as public services have undergone a period of intensifying financial challenge. At the same time, the ageing population is increasing and is adding more demand for services year on year. The government has introduced the Casey Commission, an independent commission which will inform reform of the adult social care system, with a final report back to the Prime Minister expected by 2028.
Key Cities wishes to be a part of the shaping of new social care reforms, with particular emphasis on seeing increased investment, better strategic planning of services and closer working between the health and social care sector.
