Decades of uncontrolled growth have left services for older and disabled individuals fragmented, unguided, and operating without the deliberate national design seen in the NHS. An independent review warns that England has become an international outlier whose regulatory oversights leave vulnerable people facing severe regional disparities. Additionally, research shows that self-funding individuals pay an average of 40% more for care than the rates negotiated by local councils. Baroness Louise Casey is scheduled to deliver her final recommendations for the sector next summer.
Key points
England remains an international outlier compared to France and Germany because it lacks…: England remains an international outlier compared to France and Germany because it lacks a clear stewardship system for social care.
A regional postcode lottery causes people with identical conditions to experience differi…: A regional postcode lottery causes people with identical conditions to experience differing assessment processes, wait times, and support levels.
The Care Quality Commission regulator has failed to intervene effectively, operating inst…: The Care Quality Commission regulator has failed to intervene effectively, operating instead like a spectator at the site of a car crash.
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Successive governments have been "asleep at the wheel" on adult social care, says the head of the independent commission looking into the sector in England.
Baroness Louise Casey said care services for older people and adults with disabilities had been developed in a largely uncontrolled and unintended way, unlike the deliberate design of the NHS in 1948.
As a result, she suggested a postcode lottery had developed with different levels of services available depending on where people live.
And she also highlighted the fees that self-funders pay, saying they were much higher than councils were charged for people entitled to state support.
'Heads in the sand'
Baroness Casey said care services were simply not valued enough.
Speaking to the Today programme on Radio 4, she said the NHS had become a "national hospital service: that was focussed on medical care".
And she said the failings identified by the recent Covid inquiry report into social care were testament to that.
Last month the inquiry published a report which said the care sector appeared to be "something of an afterthought"…
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