The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) has released the findings of its Spring Survey 2023, revealing positives and negatives for the sector.
Revealing the findings of the survey, ADASS outlined that the short-term fundings injections from the government were helping to reduce the number of people that are waiting for care, however the increases in the care that is being delivered to people is not keeping up with the demand. Due to this, care waiting lists are remaining high, with ADASS proceeding to warn that this could only rise in the coming winter.
Staff shortages are contributing to this issue, however local authorities are also lacking confidence in their ability to offer the minimum social care support that is required by communities. This is likely due to a record NHS backlog, increasing mental health needs, support for those with care and support needs suffering from domestic abuse, and carer breakdowns.
Following the report, social care leaders have published a list of requests for the government, with the aim of improving social care, the economy and helping carers to maintain work. These are:
- Invest in support that helps people avoid the need to go to hospital or a care home, and support for people to recover, get back on their feet and back home after hospital this winter.
- Increase support to carers and improve workforce pay, as international recruitment is not a long-term fix.
- A fully funded, long-term plan to transform social care to ensure everyone in England can get the care and support they need when they need it.
The report also found that the work being done to properly impact people’s lives is being undermined by the situation that local councils find themselves in. Last year, £19 billion was spent on adult social care in England, with 1.5 million people employed, and £51.5 billion contributed to the economy, however local authorities are unable to increase spending on preventing people from getting ill in the first place. As the survey discovered, councils were forced to overspend on their adult social care budget for the last year, with a concerning increase in those that are having to rely on reserves, and the funding that they are able to commit having to go to the delivery of complex care to those who are coming out of hospital, or those who should be admitted to hospital but are forced to have treatment delayed.
Beverley Tarka, President of the Association of Directors of Adult Services, responded to the survey findings, saying:
“Our findings show that a short-term funding boost from the Government and the hard work social care teams have done to rebuilt services after the pandemic is making a difference to thousands of people needing support and care, but we’re not out of the woods yet. Leaders tell us they are paddling hard to keep up against the tide of increasing and complex needs.
“While the focus on people coming out of hospital is important, we need to focus more funds on keeping people out of hospital in the first place so that they don’t end up needing more costly and complex medical care, which is bad for them and for the public purse.
“To meet the challenges, we need a skilled and valued workforce to do this - bringing pay in line with equivalent posts in the NHS is (an) important first step. And we need to offer investment in training and real career prospects in the profession so we can compete with other sectors.
“In the short-term we are urging the government to unlock the £600 million social care reform funding they have held back so we can improve both staffing and support carers to help keep people in their homes. But to make real progress, we need a long-term plan for investment like the one in the roadmap we published in April, and the political will to make social care a priority over the next ten years so everyone can get the care they need, when they need it in the future.”
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