19.10.2015

New Research Suggests Vulnerable Are ‘Turned Away’ From Gaining Support

Specialist public lawyers have called for urgent action to be taken to improve care services in England, after new research suggested many elderly and disabled people are turned away from receiving support.
 
The study by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) suggested that while 1.85 million requests for support were made by older and disabled people, only around 650,000 actually gain the help they required.
 
It is also believed that only 144,000 requests resulted in long-term care, including placements in care homes.
 
Concerns have been high with health and social care funding for several years, with such worries being demonstrated in recent research by Irwin Mitchell. The study found that while 92% of people involved in social work said the new Care Act is positive, many also cited a lack of funding as their single biggest concern about social care.

Expert Opinion

“The latest findings from HSCIC demonstrate that there remains much work to be done to improve standards of health and social care support in England. <br/> <br/>“With such a huge number of requests being made and only a third of those leading to support, further analysis is clearly needed as to why this is the case and how steps can be taken to improve the situation. <br/> <br/>“The Care Act has been widely welcomed as a positive step forward on the issue, yet the concerns regarding funding remain. <br/> <br/>“This is a key issue which has to be addressed as soon as possible. Everything has to be done to ensure that vulnerable members of society are able to get the support they require to get the best from life.” Yogi Amin - Partner