The findings from the health think tanks, the Nuffield Trust and the King’s Fund, show that unhappiness with social care services has been growing since 2018. A new British Social Attitudes survey found two-thirds of people who have used or had contact with social care – for themselves or someone else – were dissatisfied.
According to the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) survey in September and October 2022, the main source of dissatisfaction is people needing more social care. Other issues cited were inadequate pay, working conditions and training for social care workers and lack of support for unpaid carers.
The research comes as the Guardian newspaper reported that a third of care homes across England have considered closing during the past year because of “financially crippling” running costs, with about £480m in public funds is estimated to have been spent on “inadequate” care homes in the last four years.
Sally Warren, director of policy at the King’s Fund, said the results made the continued delays to reforming the system all the more frustrating. “We can expect dissatisfaction to rise further still if social care provision continues to decline, with people who draw on care and support, their carers and those working in the sector feeling the pain of this,” she said.
Mikey Erhardt, Campaigns and Policy Officer at Disability Rights UK said:
"We are not surprised to see the results of this survey. Disabled people of all ages do not receive the support we deserve. Every further delay in action has created a system that is hostile to our needs and desires and prevents us from leading our lives.
The government could start with an end to charging and work to create a system where the support many rely on provides choice, control and inclusion. Processes must allow the voice of Disabled people to be heard and our choices respected."