A group of 46 charities and service providers have written an open letter to health secretary Andrew Lansley calling on the Government to provide additional funding for social care – and warned that any reform of the system will fail without it (5th March 2012).
In the letter, the organisations call on the Government to deliver on the funding and legal foundation of social care in its forthcoming White Paper, due for publication in the spring. It said the recommendations of the Dilnot and the Law Commission reports on social care funding and law respectively set out a “roadmap for a sustainable and clear social care system”. But the letter also issued a stark warning to the Government: if its plans for social care do not answer the question of additional funding, they will fail.
“… a new framework without additional funding will not address the fundamental challenge: the shocking fact that at a time when more people need care, the numbers getting support from social care services are decreasing,” the letter said. The charities made this call ahead of a mass lobby of Parliament tomorrow, when hundreds of older and disabled people, their families and carers will converge on Westminster to put their point of view across to MPs. Various learning disability charities have signed the letter, including Mencap, the National Autistic Society and the Learning Disability Coalition. To read the full letter, click here. To read editor Dan Parton’s blog on the story click here.
