The BGS welcomes the King’s Fund's new report into public attitudes to social care, titled ‘Not my priority: how the public sees social care (and what can be done about it)’. It makes for worrying reading, for a variety of reasons.
The report sets out the gap between the care older people need and the social care they currently receive. Too many people feel let down by social care and, as this report states, are dissatisfied with the service they or their loved ones receive. We have known that the state of social care in this country is in a bad way for some time, and with only 12% of respondents considering later life care to be fit for purpose, this report illustrates quite how dire people believe the situation to be.
It is perhaps more worrying, although not surprising, to see how many people do not understand the complexities of the social care system (of which there are far too many). They are unaware that it is not free, not provided by the NHS, and can cost tens of thousands of pounds. The degree to which the system is misunderstood goes some way to explaining how low a priority it is to most people.
People can be uncomfortable thinking about needing care in the later years of their lives and the lives of the ones they love, but the social care system will not improve unless it is made a public and Government priority. It is not sufficient to ignore social care until we need it. We support the King’s Fund’s efforts to better understand the lack of public and political will to prioritise the transformation of our social care system that is so seriously overdue. Health and social care must be treated as equal parts of the same system. to ensure that everyone can access the care they need, where and when they need it.
The Casey Review must address the issues raised in this report and bring to an end the decades of political inaction on social care.
