Adult social care needs a £1.7bn funding package to support care at home and unpaid carers this winter, according to the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS).
The organisation has called on the government to provide £480m to ensure older people and working-age disabled adults continue to receive the care and support they need in their homes and a further £1.2bn for unpaid family carers.
The latter funding would include an extra payment for those on Carer’s Allowance to manage the costs of winter and a breaks package to ensure they can continue to provide care.
ADASS president James Bullion (pictured) said the response to the pandemic has centred almost exclusively on the NHS and to a lesser extent on care homes.
As England enters national lockdown, he added, there should be greater focus on the majority of people who receive care and support in their own homes.
"This is not a nicety. It is a necessity. Without a stronger focus on care at home and greater support for family carers, those of us who have care and support needs will not receive that care, and our family carers will face an intolerable winter,” said Bullion.
"During the first wave of the pandemic, much was made of the need to protect the NHS. The reality is that we only protect the NHS by equally protecting social care, and we will only protect the NHS and social care by protecting family carers,” he added.
ADASS has meanwhile joined forces the TEC Services Association (TSA) to set up a commission on the role of digital in a reformed adult social care system.
The duo will report in March on how better access to technology could improve joint working in social care and offer more preventative, responsive support, shaped around the individual.
