Concerns grow at sharp rise in people waiting for needs assessment

That figure has come from a survey by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), which found almost 300,000 people are waiting for a needs assessment by social workers, an increase of 90,000 in five months and with 25% having spent longer than six months on waiting lists.

ADASS forecast that if this rate of increase continued the number waiting will hit 400,000 by November – double that a year earlier. The results were extrapolated from responses from 83 councils.

Cathie Williams, ADASS chief executive, said: “Contrary to claims, social care is not being fixed and we need decisive action and funding now to get us through the months ahead and to start to build the foundations of the reformed system that we all want to see.

“One big reason why almost 40,000 people are waiting for the care and support they need to actually start is that care providers simply do not have the pairs of hands they need to sustain services.”

The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) said Brexit, the pandemic and austerity “are recognised as major issues that continue to impact access to adult social care”.

Maris Stratulis, national director for BASW England, said: “BASW England members have been telling us that social care services are at breaking point, with mounting pressures on people needing support, carers and a sector that is struggling to fill vacancies and retain staff.

“We desperately need government intervention and sustainable financial investment to support those in need including supporting people to remain living in their own homes and local communities.”  

The Local Government Association (LGA) said the ADASS survey provided “growing evidence from across the health and care sector of the mounting pressures facing adult social care and the need for urgent new investment to deliver much-needed care so that people can live an equal lives”.

It said underfunded reforms risked exacerbating significant financial and workforce pressures, including vacancy rates.

David Fothergill, chair of the LGA Community Wellbeing Board said: “The reforms to the sector as they currently stand will make services worse rather than better if pushed through without the correct time and resource.”

The LGA last week wrote to Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay to warn that if the Government ploughed on with reforms to social care financing the strain would become even worse.

Its letter to Mr Barclay said the work of social care departments "would be far easier to do if it was not being done alongside demanding preparatory work associated with other strands of the reform agenda.

“We therefore call on the Government to defer implementation of the care cost cap, changes to the financial means test thresholds, and Section 18(3) of the Care Act to April 2024.”

A report by MPs on the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee, added to the clamour over pressures on social care.

It said the “message rang clear throughout our inquiry: the adult social care sector does not have enough funding either in the here and now, or in the longer-term”.

The committee said the Government had “nothing more than a vision” on social care with "no roadmap, no timetable, no milestones, and no measures of success”.

Committee chair, Labour MP Clive Betts, said: “The Government deserves credit for attempting reform and for acting to try to prevent the unpredictable and catastrophic costs which can be inflicted upon people for their care.

“However, the Government should be under no illusions that it has come close to rescuing social care and it needs to be open with the public that there is a long way to go.”

Mr Betts said the NHS and adult social care “should not be pit against one another” as each needed the other to be adequately funded.

The committee also expressed concerns about the “sheer number of reforms and new ways of working in respect of adult social care that involve and affect local authorities”.

It said councils needed a multi-year funding settlement to help shape sustainable local care markets.

Mark Smulian