As nearly 190,000 more elderly people are expected to require care by 2035, the demand for care home places will almost double within the same period, a new study reveals. Against the backdrop of rising costs and cuts to funding in the ‘crisis’ ridden care sector, there are fears that thousands of vulnerable people will be left without vital support.
Currently, there is limited effort by the Government to “urgently” meet the rising costs and solve the issue with lack of assisted living accommodation. At the same time, the increase in life expectancy has coincided with a dramatic rise in the number of elderly people who are “highly dependent”, according to the authors of the study. The average amount of time that pensioners required substantial care nearly doubled between 1991 and 2011. This presents a serious dilemma.
For the already strained care sector, this creates more concerns whether residential homes will be able to cope with steadily rising costs and cuts to funding. A recent report warned that one in six care homes in the UK are showing signs they are at risk of failure.
Today, as a result of increased life expectancy, older people are spending more of their remaining life with care needs. This, along with the increasing number of older adults with higher rates of illness and disability, is contributing to the current social care crisis.
To address these trends, expenditure on the care of older people will need to increase substantially and quickly. Part of this would be to properly handle the boundary between health care and social care.
The authors of the study point out that if rates of dependency remain constant, there would be an additional 190,000 older people with medium dependency, and 163,000 with high dependency by 2025 compared with 2015.
As a result, the government is facing a pressing need to urgently create 70,000 new care home places – an arduous task amidst increasing economic uncertainty in the wake of Brexit. The need for more accommodation with care and support for UK’s ageing population can come in the form of extra care housing rather than just traditional care homes.
Rob Burley, director of policy at Alzheimer’s Society, urges that the Government tackle the intensifying crisis in the care home sector with urgency. There is a pressing need for future-proof plans to accommodate the enormous rise in demand.
The current state of the sector is further aggravated by the high percentage of nursing homes displaying the hallmarks of financial distress. A combination of rising costs, cuts to funding and an ageing population is pushing businesses in the sector “back to the brink”, according to accountancy firm Moore Stephens.
In a recent survey of 7,497 companies by the firm, data revealed that in the year to February 2017, 16 per cent of care home companies were financially stressed and exhibiting signs that they were at risk of failure, compared with 12 per cent the previous year.
At the same time, a report by charity, Age UK, revealed that thousands of care home residents were being wrongly charged fees of up to £100 a week. One in four pensioners who are entitled to free care were being told to contribute towards their care costs to subsidise gaps in care home funding from councils.
In an effort to address the issue, the Department of Health will give local authorities in England an extra £2 billion boost over the next three years to maintain access for UK’s growing ageing population. It is expected that this move could put the social care sector on a part to recovery for a more sustainable future.
