The Dillnot Commission reports on Monday 4th July 2011 with, hopefully, recommendations on the future funding of care including Home Care (Care in the Community). The previous Labour government did nothing because the ageing population problem was not imminent and, unfortunately, governments tend not to want to deal with difficult issues when it could affect their votes!
The population of people 75 and over was 4.8 million in 2008, this is forecast to increase to 7.0 million by 2023 and 8.7 million by 2033 an 81% increase over 25 years. For people over 85 the population was 1.3 million in 2008 and is forecast to increase to 2.2 million by 2023 and 3.3 million by 2033 an 154% increase over 25 years. It is the people over 85 that are most likely to require care so the increases in numbers is alarming in terms of the cost of care to the nation.
The other way of looking at the population is the number of people available to support the elderly, the ratio of people of working age to those of pensionable age was 3.23 in 2008 dropping to 2.78 by 2033. More pensioners less people able to support them and this includes the effects of increasing the pension age to make people work longer.
As can be seen from the population information, there is a big Social Care funding issue going to hit the country. Action needs to be taken now to put a Social Care funding system in that will deal with this issue.
It is unfortunate that dealing with Social Care funding comes at a time when the government is trying to cut spending. Any increase in Social Care funding is going to be tricky to fund we are either going to have to pay ourselves for care directly or indirectly through increased taxation for the government to be able to pay the extra cost.
Social Care funding has the same problem as many government pensions where we are trying to pay out of current government spending rather than building funds that can be used to pay for the costs in the future.
I fear that the government will back away from taking the bull by the horns and putting a proper funding system in, because, what is needed to be done is likely to hit the pocket of the individual at a time when we are all feeling the pinch. What makes matters worse is that the government, being in coalition, is even less likely to do something bold.
As a Care provider we believe that substantially more needs to be put into care funding because the number of care staff needed in the future will be much higher and to attract good people in to the sector would need pay rates to go up. We believe that care staff are undervalued and their role in society needs to get greater recognition.
We implore the government to be bold and not just kick all the recommendations of the Dillnot commission into the long grass.
We aim to run an excellent Home Care service in Winchester and the surrounding areas in Hampshire and want to support the Local Authority and the NHS in delivering first rate care to the people of Hampshire.