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LGA - Response to Centre for Ageing Better report on home adaptions
Cllr Ian Hudspeth, Chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing board, responded to the Centre for Ageing Better report on home adaptions and repairs
“Councils are committed to keeping people at home and independent for as long as possible.
“As the report highlights, councils and partners are using a range of forward thinking initiatives to adapt and improve homes, to ensure they are accessible and help people remain in their own homes rather than go into care.
“However, with people living longer, increases in costs and decreases in funding, adult social care is at breaking point.
“Over recent years, councils have protected adult social care relative to other services. But the scale of the overall funding picture for local government as a whole means adult social care services still face a £3.5 billion funding gap by 2025, just to maintain existing standards of care. The likely consequences of this are more and more people being unable to get quality and reliable care and support, which enables them to live more fulfilling lives.
“Action is needed, which is why, following government’s decision to delay its green paper on adult social care, the Local Government Association has published its own green paper consultation to drive forward the public debate on what sort of care and support we need to improve people’s wellbeing and independence, the need to focus on prevention work, and, crucially, how we fund these vital services.”
Notes to editors
- The LGA’s green paper is available here. The consultation closed on 26 September.
- The LGA will respond to the findings in a further publication in the autumn, which will be used to influence the Government’s own expected green paper and Spending Review.
- Recent surveys by the LGA show that 96 per cent of councils and lead members believe there is a major funding problem with adult social care; 89 per cent said taxation must be part of the long-term solution to funding it, and that 87 per cent of the public support more funding to plug the significant funding gap in the sector.
'The lives we want to lead' – The LGA green paper for adult social care and wellbeing
Adult social care and support matters. High quality social care and support helps people live the life they want to live. It helps bind our communities, it sustains our NHS and it provides essential economic value to our country.
View report here
