Care in crisis 2012

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The recent history of funding

There is serious underspend on older people’s social care. Spend on older people’s care stagnated and then decreased between 2005-06 and 2011-12. Yet the number of people aged over 85, the age group who are most likely to need care, has increased by over 250,000 since 2004-05. As a result each year unmet need has increased as people are excluded from accessing services or see their care packages reduced.
Councils have cut back on their service provision. In 2009-10 the total hours of support purchased by local authorities for older people fell from 2 million to 1.85 million.
Provision of care is more restricted than ever. In 2005 half of councils provided support to people assessed as having ‘moderate’ needs, but in 2011 the figure fell to 18 per cent.
Many older people miss out altogether, remaining outside of the state care system. Today of 2 million older people in England with care-related needs nearly 800,000 receive no support from public or...