Missing millions: Exploring unmet social care need for disabled adults
Social care support can be transformative for disabled people – but as many as 1.5 million working-age Disabled people in England may not be getting the care they’re eligible for.
Our national partner Healthwatch England’s new research into social care for disabled people shows how transformative social care can be for those receiving it. But it also demonstrates the scale of unmet need. In the full report, Healthwatch outline their findings and provide recommendations to decision-makers.
16/07/2024
By Healthwatch England
Our national partner Healthwatch England’s new research into social care for disabled people shows how transformative social care can be for those receiving it. But it also demonstrates the scale of unmet need. In the full report, Healthwatch outline their findings and provide recommendations to decision-makers.
16/07/2024
By Healthwatch England
Key findings
- Up to 1.5 million disabled adults in England could be eligible for social care or other support, but aren’t receiving it.
- When people receive social care support, their experiences are very positive, with 78% of disabled adults aged 18-64 agreeing that their care helped them live the lives they wanted to.
- Social care helps people stay healthy, do their favourite activities, eat and drink, work and volunteer, and look after themselves and their homes.
- Only 9% of people we spoke to disagreed that care helped them live the lives they wanted to.
- Access to social care remains a challenge. 28% of our total sample had never accessed care, despite self-identifying as eligible.
- Most people waiting for care assessments received information and support, including how long they could expect to wait for an assessment (32%) and information on what to expect.
- Around 10% of people received no support at all while waiting.
Recommendations
Based on this report’s findings, we set out the following recommendations:
- The Government must fund local authorities to raise public awareness of social care, improve ways of accessing social care services, and find potentially eligible individuals through proactive outreach and statutory information, advice, and signposting services.
- Funding should be made available to local councils to boost social care capacity and support councils in addressing existing care assessments and care package backlogs.
- Funding should be ringfenced for organisations providing independent advice and guidance related to social care.
Downloads
File download
HWE Unmet Social Care Needs Report
Downloads
File download
SOCIAL CARE REPORT LARGE PRINT
