Tag Archives: Care in Crisis campaign

Who would care for my Mum? Or for yours?

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Age UK | Leave a comment

Imagine that one day your Mum is at home enjoying her retirement. She has always been highly independent, fit and well. Until the day she has a stroke.

After a short stay in hospital she comes home. But life is different now. It’s much harder for her to do everyday things. She struggles getting in and out of the bath and even using the shower is a challenge. There are times when reaching the toilet is too much. You have to face the fact that she cannot manage on her own any more.

You do the most sensible thing. You get in touch with Mum’s local social services. You explain the difficulties she is now having. They assess her needs. You hope this leads to some carers coming in to give Mum a hand with those things she is finding too much, like getting to the toilet, washing and preparing simple meals.

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Posted in Campaigning, Care in Crisis

Tagged #carecantwait, #careincrisis, Age UK, Age UK blog, Ageing, ageing society, campaigning, Care Bill, Care in Crisis, Care in Crisis campaign, Government, Health & wellbeing, Health and Social Care, Later life, Lobby a Lord, Local government, older people, social care, Social Care Bill, social care reform, who would care for my mum?

Queen announces landmark legislation for older people

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Age UK | 23 Comments

We have repeatedly called for improvements to the pensions system and for urgent changes to the shambles that passes for our system of social care and today in the Queen’s Speech two of our proverbial buses arrived at once. The speech contained two pieces of landmark legislation: A Bill to simplify the legislative framework and funding of social care, and a Bill introducing a flat rate State Pension. Both these measures are very much welcomed by Age UK.

Improving the care and support system in England is long overdue. The complexity of the legal framework, the raft of regulations to plug gaps and the confusion many people experience when trying to navigate the existing care system tells us that care and support need reform. The Care Bill is a vital part of the changes that are necessary. However the current and future funding of adult social care is likely to be the elephant in the room throughout the progress of this Bill. Social care funding has declined by £710 million in real terms since the Government came to power in 2010. This is at the same time as the population of over 85, who are most likely to need social care, continues to rise. Budgets are falling while demand is rising. Continue reading →

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Posted in Government, Home and Care, Income, Money Matters, Public Policy, Queen's Speech, Social care

Tagged #carecantwait, #careincrisis, Age UK, Age UK blog, Ageing, ageing population, ageing society, Care and Support Bill, Care Bill, Care in Crisis, Care in Crisis campaign, Draft Care and Support Bill, draft Pensions Bill, Government, Home and Care, Incomes, money matters, National Employment Savings Trust, NEST, older people, pensioner poverty, pensions, Pensions Bill, pensions reform, Queen's Speech, Single-tier pension, social care

Joint Committee reports on Draft Care and Support Bill

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Stephen Lowe | 2 Comments

The Joint Committee on the Draft Care and Support Bill has completed its scrutiny of the draft bill, and published a report and recommendations. The committee is supportive of much of the bill, but suggests that further measures to promote preventative services and early intervention, and to promote integration between local authority social care, housing services and the NHS, could be included.

The committee also argues that the government has underestimated the cost of implementing the proposals contained in the bill. In launching the report, the committee’s chair, Paul Burstow, argued that “The government must take stock of its funding for adult care and support and think seriously about whether the transformation we all want to see can truly be delivered without greater resources’. Age UK has similarly called for the government’s forthcoming spending review to make provision for funding a fair and dependable care system.

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Posted in Home and Care, Social care

Tagged #carecantwait, #careincrisis, #Dilnot, Age UK, Age UK blog, Ageing, ageing society, Care in Crisis, Care in Crisis campaign, Dilnot Commission, Draft Care and Support Bill, Joint Committee on the Draft Care and Support Bill, older people, social care

Government announces care costs cap

Posted on February 11, 2013 by ageukpublicaffairs | 7 Comments

This blog was contributed by Caroline Abrahams, Director of External Affairs, for Age UK.

Last year’s White Paper and draft Bill make these encouraging times for social care, for decades a Cinderella service. What has been so obviously lacking though is the funding for a better system, so today’s announcement about the implementation of ‘Dilnot’ is a welcome step forward.

Unfortunately, implementation has to wait until April 2017, so very few older people living in a care home now will benefit, but at least some of those who come after them will: the Government estimates that 1 in 6 older people who need care will gain, but by just how much and over what timescale is hard to tell without detailed modelling which the Government has not (yet) released.

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Posted in Campaigning, care homes, Home and Care, Social care

Tagged #carecantwait, #careincrisis, #Dilnot, #socialcare, Age UK, Age UK blog, Ageing, ageing society, Care, care costs, care costs cap, care homes, Care in Crisis, Care in Crisis campaign, Caroline Abrahams, Caroline Abrahams Age UK, Dilnot Commission, Dilnot report, Home and Care, older people, social care, Social Care Bill, social care reform