‘HE IS holding the future of care in his hands’ – those were the words of Age UK Coventry and Warwickshire Chief Executive Michael Garrett about Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
Ahead of the Government’s spending review, due at the end of this month, Mr Garrett is demanding councils are given the cash they need so they can provide ‘decent’ care services for older and disabled people over the next three years.
He said: “We know good social care makes such a big difference to older people, including around here in Coventry and Warwickshire, and their families too.
“The problem is, despite everyone’s best efforts, it can be hit or miss whether you get it, because across the country there just isn’t enough money for care, or enough care workers, to go round.”
He welcomed the Prime Minister’s announcement of more help for older people who faced sky high care bills but warned that virtually none of the funding from his plan was set to arrive in local areas, such as Coventry and Warwickshire, before autumn 2023 at the earliest.
And he claimed even then, most of it would be tied up administering the new care cap.
“Many older people here and elsewhere need more help from good care services now.
“They can’t afford to wait until 2023 because that will be far too late.
“Unless more money comes into social care via local councils very soon, more and more older people will have to put up with inadequate provision, if they can get it at all.
“Without an urgent injection of cash, we also fear the position will go on getting worse, because of growing demand and rising costs.
“It is no exaggeration to say Mr Sunak is holding the future of care in his hands.”
He called on him to play his part in ‘fixing social care’ as the Prime Minister promised, through his funding decisions.
“For older people who need help here in Coventry and Warwickshire and, indeed, throughout the country, the stakes really are very high.”
