Following the publication of Age Scotland’s latest report, Meeting Our Commitment to Care, Scottish Care’s Chief Executive has issued the following statement:
Scottish Care Chief Executive Dr Donald Macaskill said:
“Scottish Care welcomes this important research from Age Scotland, which highlights the shameful underfunding of elderly care in Scotland.
“Serious questions need to be asked about how we value the care of older people in Scotland, and what can be done to ensure every stage of an individual’s care journey prioritises their dignity, choice and human rights. It is unacceptable that these delays are taking place, and finances – or a lack of them – cannot be seen as an acceptable justification or excuse.
“What’s more, delaying or denying someone’s access to care and support is counterproductive from a financial perspective anyway, never mind the negative impact this has on an older person’s health and wellbeing. A lack of support being provided in someone’s own home or in a care home is likely to lead to more presentations at A&E departments and hospital admissions that may have been preventable with the appropriate support being funded and delivered in the community within appropriate timescales.
“Scottish Care’s 2015 report, Home Delivery, found that the average cost of one emergency admission for an individual aged 65+ equates to caring for 27.7 care at home clients for one week, or 9.28 weeks of residential care for an individual. Therefore any illusion on the part of Local Authorities that delaying support to someone will save money is clearly false.
“Scottish Care is currently undertaking research, due to be published on 12 May, which further explores the impact of Free Personal Care on individuals in receipt of support and the care workforce.
“Shifting the balance of care towards enabling people to live at home, healthy and independent, for as long as possible has been a key policy objective of successive Scottish Governments. But paradoxically what we have seen over the last decade or so is not that more people are being cared for and supported at home, but fewer albeit for longer and with more intensive packages of care and support.
“This research will highlight that the tightened eligibility criteria for receiving Free Personal Care means that increasingly, support in people’s own homes is being limited to only individuals with high level, intensive support needs and those who would previously have received support .
“This raises questions about how older people are being supported at an earlier stage in their care journey. We would argue that they are being forgotten about under the current funding system, which is unacceptable.
“Urgent action is required by national and local governments to address the chronic underfunding of Scotland’s older people. There are very real issues of ageism at play here in how we view, value and fund older people’s care, compared with other care groups. Scottish Care has therefore issued an Agenda for Care in advance of the Scottish Local Elections and the General Election, calling on all parties to prioritise social care and the care of older people, and calling on citizens to consider whether their vote, whoever it is for, is a #VoteforCare.”
