Tendering For Care

A letter, signed by a raft of organisations including the Institute for Public Policy Research and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, warned Gordon Brown against giving social care a poor financial settlement in next year’s comprehensive spending review.

It claimed the current system is "unsustainable" and thousands of older people would be condemned to isolation. They warned the current social care system is unsustainable and needs further investment if it is to move beyond "rationing intensive social care support".

It followed being raised by local authorities through local government leader Lord Bruce-Lockhart that worsening settlements each year had now forced many to raise eligibility for support is restricted to the point where already only those in severe need are likely to receive help.

Signatories, including John Coughlan, president of the Association of Directors of Social Services, Niall Dickson, chief executive of the King’s Fund and Michael Lake, director general of Help the Aged argued investing in older people’s care will yield financial as well as social gains. Targeting investment on new technology – such as telecare systems to monitor older people in their own homes – should also produce savings in health and social care.

The letter urged the chancellor to heed the recommendations of the influential Wanless report for the King’s Fund earlier this year, which warned that services for older people were already being pared back to worrying levels, so that only those in severe need are likely to receive help.

"We are deeply concerned that there are currently no signals that the government is moving to address this critical issue adequately. Within the current constraints it ought to be possible to ensure levels of social care support for older people at least do not worsen," they wrote.

"Without additional funds for social care, very many vulnerable people will be condemned to isolation and dependency. The decisions taken now will affect the lives and prospects of hundreds of thousands of older people, their families and their carers."