Cost of social care. Aibu

[Onlyifyouknewthetruth2026]

My son gets overnight respite 2 nights a month. Not a great amount but still respite. I have attached a pic showing the annual cost which is alot. Just for reference.

Got me thinking about social care and money.
With a aging population and more calls for social care no wonder it's on its knees
Im curious what others think about the cost.

To change the NHS you need to change the culture of the organisation.
They are told they are marvellous and for too many that means they do not stop to seek to try to improve anything. They are already brilliant. No need to improve anything. So they don’t. And I am afraid it has gone to their heads.
Some structures are too vast. But it pays the chief bods more so those in the running like such structures.
Some policies they have make the patient into a problem. And nobody has the ability to change it.
Occasionally you get someone with drive and gumption. The team who decided to try to bring down waiting lists by doing loads of easy operations fast in a short period of time. Brilliant. But probably that was too successful. And they are not used to applauding that. Success and good ideas are not welcome.
They waste money, too many tales of poor procurement.
They constantly ask for money. What they think the rest of society does I have no idea. 2008 was a long time ago.
They too often work privately or are supply staff.
They recruit overseas before our own medical schools have finished. And our own medical students have to look to Australia and Canada to get a job. Which should not happen. Why does it ?
Staff recruited from overseas should only work for the NHS. No private or supply work permitted.
We should stop over praising the NHS. It has faults. It has good staff as well as bad. It has systems and process that need overhauling.

There is so much that the NHS could do to change. But the most critical I think is a cultural one. They have become a very political organisation.
Someone needs to get rid of that.
A cultural change is sorely needed.

Sorry if that sentence was too long for you. I know you like to shorten things as shown in your estimate of Labour's time in power for example...

I know she said it was 1:2, I said as much in my post. I was pointing out that even though she said that, the paperwork says ‘partly 1:1 support’.

It will be the paperwork that funding is based on.

Don't be silly. You know fine what I mean. All council services are being done poorly or not at all to fund the ever increasing social bill. It can't go on.

No, that sentence was too long for YOU.

And of course it's a vicious circle isn't it. The more the country keeps spending outwith it's means, the higher the debt gets. The higher the debt gets, the more the bond market will charge us. In turn our spending becomes higher and we get ever closer to an IMF imposed bailout/cuts.

We would be far better to set a budget for each area - defence, schools, health, social care. The budget would be based on what we could afford. No more, no less. Then that budget would have to be split over all the demands on it. So that might mean an allocation to each disabled child of xx and they get whatever that money can buy.

As opposed to just now we work out an ideal situation it seems, the cost is huge, we can't actually afford it, so we just go further into debt. Crazy.

Right now the UK borrows each month to pay the interest on current debt.

Pretty much everything needs to be cut. We need proper defence spending. We need a co-pay or private health service. We need benefits slashed and we need pensions reduced (either via increasing the pension age or keeping the tax allowances frozen. The triple lock has to go).

The UK pays more to borrow now than Greece which is just embarrassing.

We live like a rich country but we most definately are not.
The UK is the equivalent of the neighbour in the big house, with the nice car on the drive and in private up to their ears in debt with the whole pack of cards about to tumble down. And when you look at their big house close up you see the maintenance has been neglected and it's all beginning to look a bit run down as well.

As we go into this winter I'm pretty sure we are going to see an increase in unemployment, the housing market will stall, people will lose their jobs, interest rates are going up as is inflation. There will be blackouts (hopefully not too many). Unless we see a very sensible grown up budget which makes tough decisions next week, the bond markets will charge us more. Wait and see.

How would you expect that budget to work?

For example older adult social care - if they can only get 1/3 of the support they get now, how are they cared for? Or are they left to die?

Right now the UK borrows each month to pay the interest on current debt.

Not according to the IMF.

Thanks to everyone who has commented, etc. I have found this quite interesting and do believe it's a discussion worth having.

I don't drive, but my son gets high rate care and mobility. In theory, that means he could get a car ( with me driving it )
Despite having a few lessons already iam no where near close to being ready. I now can no longer afford more lessons. The council will spend roughly 1k a yr on taxi transport for my son until he is 18. So 8k.

If I received money for lessons that would be a saving of at least 6k. Not saying the council should pay for my driving lessons but it would be cheaper not to mention making life in general si much easier. Just a observation then a demand or complaint .

So in a 22hr period roughly 8 hrs will be 1 to 1 and it depends what they have planned. So just around the unit it's 2 to 1
in the kitchen outside etc it's 1 to 1. When he is outdoors it's 2 staff members to him. So just depends.

With regards to you driving your son to school.

Lots of parents who do drive still do expect the council to fund taxis or mini busses because it’s part of what their child is entitled to. So to the council there would be no guarantee that should you become able to drive you still wouldn’t enforce your rights as such.

I quite like the idea of paying parents a certain about of fuel that works out cheaper than said taxis for those that can drive their children who are entitled to transport. It would save money overall. But again since it’s a right parents will and do enforce it even if they have a mobility car and no job to then rush off to.

We're financially at our most vulnerable in our 20s because of the way we have extended childhood, quite unnaturally and created society around that. We didnt have to do that at all and dont have to continue like that

Leave school at 15/16 and by the time you're 25 you should have been working for a good 10 years and had relationships to learn about life. You should be completely independent and have learned a lot about yourself.

Read any thread on here and people are blathering on about people under 25 basically not being mature enough or brain developed enough to tie their own shoe laces

The brain is more elastic when young, its a evolutionary advantage we have, young humans are able to take risks, have bigger ideas, learn faster, be more flexible emotionally and intellectually. Its not a disadvantage. But society infantalises young humans. To our detriment.

But why should you receive money for lessons? Nobody else does. It isn’t up to the state to fund every last aspect of your life even if it does (in theory) produce a saving.

I think they will be in 20 years. Or, at least, there will be an increasing number of sad stories about people who fall through the cracks and escape /end their lives/die in a fall/ run into traffic or similar because the state will not be able to afford to provide anything other than the most inadequate minimum.

I’ve just finished watching Panorama about supported accommodation.. Birmingham City Council alone is £400 million over budget in this.

Ive never quoted a 5% figure.

You are not guarenteed to get transport upto 18. The law changes in this regard at 16- you can ofcourse appeal/ fight etc the LA has to take everything into account. Our LA have opted for fuel allowance or personal budget only rather than providing transport. This doesn't mean you won't get it, I just wanted to make you aware.

The family fund may also help you with driving lessons- i think, i haven't double checked before i posted this but they used to.

Edit to add: transport rights change again post 18 as they are then an adult and you don't have parental responsibility.

Privatise profits

Socialise losses

Thats what we are now paying for

He doesn't get school transport. As we stay a 5 min walk to school. The transport is to respite only which he will get until he is 18. This has been confirmed to me.

Going to add we are in Scotland.

I'm sorry, I was mistaken I thought it was school transport- we had this issue.

Didn't say I should and no i don't expect every aspect of my life to be funded. Just a observation that because I dont drive he gets taxis to respite which the parents who drive dont get. It would save money.

Lots of special schools don't have wrap around care (and child minders etc don't really cater for such additional needs) and some parents rely on the transport to enable them to work and would be unable to do so without it. So it's a double edged sword - spend £x on transport or pay £y in additional benefits. We can't have it both ways.

It would also save money if they gave everyone on UC driving lessons as presumably it would widen their job seeking areas. But it would be madness. The entitlement is off the charts.

School transport here needs applying for every school year I think and I think after 16 it's pretty difficult to get it. Just luck we happen to stay so close.