Social care funding... really?

[stillcrazyafterall]

I know there is a lot of discussions about this, but I was watching the news last night and they were talking about it all and the NI hike. They interviewed a young woman with MS who said 'over 50% of the users of adult social care are young'. I was absolutely stunned as I (along with, I imagine, the majority of people) would never have even considered this to be the case. I tend to think 'adult sc = old people in care homes'. I can't actually find any info on this. Is anyone else surprised and can anyone find statistics that say this?

No not surprised.
My dc and a lot of the people of their age live in a care home.
24 years upwards.

It's true. People don't realize that nearly half of local authority spending on social care is towards supporting disabled adults aged 18-64 to live independent lives.

And not just personal care either - it's for day services, supported living, respite care, support workers to help disabled people be a part of society etc.

Social care is in major crisis. Support workers are leaving the sector in droves because of poor pay. Respite care and services have been cut.

And yet the focus on social care is on elderly people because politicians see them as voters and don't give a stuff about disabled people's lives.

Some stats on this lin
k.
www.health.org.uk/publications/reports/social-care-for-adults-aged-18-64

Thanks - I will have a read. I did, obviously, realise that's others used adult sc but that the vast majority were old in care homes, I feel quite naive now finding that isn't the case!

There must be more people aged 16 to 70 than aged over 70 (no idea what the interviewee was classing as young), so although (I assume) a lower proportion of them use social care, they could easily outnumber older users.

There's a lot of services (e.g. day centres for adults with learning disabilities) you might not be all that aware of unless you know someone who uses one. There's other things you might not even think of as social care - I have a blind friend who has a PA for a few hours a week paid for I think from a social care budget.

Well there you are. May be people should stop going on about wealthy pensioners.

I wonder if Boris has forgotten about young disabled adults utilising social care? He seems stuck on pensioner social care and the NHS.

The people I know working in young peoples social care are well trained (medication, restraint, deescalation, safeguarding, food hygiene, first aid) and provide person centred care to young people with complex needs, as detailed in care packages.
It’s not a job for the faint hearted due to the level of physical risk and the emotional resilience required to deal with day to day situations. Sadly poor pay fails to reflect the level of responsibility and professionalism required to meet cqc regulations.

Rock bottom levels of recruitment, mixed ability agency, high staff turnover, high stress, high job vacancy rates and poor pay combines to create a serious social care crisis. Strong foundations are desperately needed to built a stronger social care service for disabled people. A central register of carers and qualifications, along with a pay scale to match NHS roles would be an effective first step.

The care home my dc is in the youngest is 25 and the age gos up to over 70.
Sadly the conservatives have never cared about disabled people, so would be surprised if they changed now.

The LAs, driven by cash tend to opt for the cheaper care packages available. Sadly care package costs are often based on incredibly low staff wages and disabled people sometimes living in settings which don’t fully match their needs or wishes.

Im deeply aware that social carer workers have soldiered through crisis after crisis with little acknowledgment. Between the covid pandemic, low wages, high turn over, high numbers of vacancies it’s a disastrous sector to work in. And now settings will lose thousands of unvaccinated social care workers and wages will be lost to a new tax.