Focus on: Social Care for Older People- Nuffield Trust and Health Report
This new report details the impact of reducing budgets and having to manage demand with an aging population.
The research, which is part of the Nuffield Trust and Health Foundation’s QualityWatch programme, reveals that most local authorities are tightly rationing social care for the over-65s in response to cuts, resulting in significant drops in the number of people receiving services.
Key findings include:
- Between 2009/10 and 2012/13 spending on social care for older people fell by 15 per cent in real terms from £10.6 billion to £9.8 billion;
- Almost a quarter of a million fewer older people received publicly funded community services in financial years 2012/13 compared to 2009/10, a 26 per cent drop;
- Home and day care spending by councils fell by 23 per cent (or £538 million) over the same period;
- The number of older people receiving home-delivered meals has more than halved since 2009/10;
- Transfers of money from the NHS to adult social care have more than doubled since 2009/10. Without these, service cuts in social care could have been even more drastic.
The study seeks to assess the impact of social care cuts on the health and well being of older people and their carers, but finds that, due to a lack of available data, it is not possible to quantify this.