SHARP DIVIDE BETWEEN PEOPLE WHO DO AND DO NOT QUALIFY FOR SOCIAL CARE

PEOPLE NOT receiving support from councils are struggling with a poor quality of life, says the third report on the state of social care in England by the social care watchdog, CSCI. The report for the first time explores the experiences of people not deemed eligible for state-supported social care. It shows that many frail older people are being ‘signposted’ to voluntary services. Many are forced to rely on help from family and informal arrangements, which can break down at short notice. People unable to rely on families or friends and unable to pay for care services themselves are simply left to cope with everyday life, while some become virtually trapped in their own home.
Local councils increasingly only help those with ‘substantial’ or ‘critical’ needs. Although councils use a national set of rules, called ´fair access to care services´ (FACS) to decide who is eligible for support, today’s report shows that who does or doesn’t get help varies not only between but also within the same council. In practice the criteria can be interpreted in different ways by local staff.
Many people who pay for their own care can also be ‘lost to the system’. They get little by way of information or advice about their different care options. As a result some people end up inappropriately in residential care.
On the flip side, there are clear improvements in the range and variety of services for those who do qualify for council-arranged care. Performance ratings of councils have improved for the fifth consecutive year. There has also been improvement, for the fourth consecutive year, in the average percentage of national minimum standards met by all care services, but this rate of improvement has slowed.
Commission chair, Dame Denise Platt comments, “This, our third report, provides further convincing evidence about the very variable experiences, which people have when they are seeking care, particularly those outside the formal public care system. There is now an urgent need to create a fair and equitable social care system, which is sustainable and affordable”.
CSCI also issued the following information:

The numbers of older people using services has dropped from 867,000 people in 2003 to 840,000 in 2006. This is at a time when the population aged 75+ increased by nearly three per cent;
Fewer households are receiving supported homecare –479,000 in 1997 compared to 358,000 in 2006 – although the total number of hours has increased because the average number of hours that each eligible person receives has increased;
It is estimated that 6,000 older people out of the 2,450,000 older people with a disability or impairment in 2006-07, with high support needs received no services and no informal care.
It is estimated that 275,000 older people with less intensive needs received no services and had no informal care;
It is estimated that 450,000 older people in the current system, who do get support from family and friends, and may also be receiving some services, have a shortfall in their personal care;
Between May 2006 and April 2007, 23,699 individuals received a service within the POPP programme;
Councils raising their eligibility thresholds to ‘substantial’ increased from 53 per cent to 62 per cent in 2006-07. The trend is expected to continue as 73 per cent councils anticipate they will be operating at ‘substantial’ or ‘critical’ level in 2007-08.